Another AP student shot at in the US

Ashok Pulluru said Shashank’s roommates Vishal and Sunil, studying in the same university, phoned them on Saturday night to inform about the incident. The boys said they had just returned from college on Saturday evening to their room in Brown Drive Apartment when Shashank went downstairs to get his bag which he had forgotten in the car.

“They said that a few moments later, he stumbled back into the room clutching his stomach. He told them he was accosted by three youths under the apartment block who shot him in the stomach. He fell unconscious before mentioning the reason behind the attack. They immediately rushed him to a hospital in an ambulance. Hospital authorities have told them that they had performed two surgeries and that he was out of danger now. They are, however, not releasing any further information to the boys, saying they will only talk to his parents,” Ashok Pulluru said.

“We presume that whoever shot him must have asked for money and he may have refused following which they shot him. Shashank used to tell us about such incidents happening in that area,” he added.

Shashank’s father Sudhakar is an assistant register in the Cooperative Department at Hanamkonda while his mother is a school teacher. They are trying to procure emergency visas through the Superintendent of Police to go to the US to be with their son.

Shashank is the ninth Andhra student studying abroad to be attacked in the last one year.

Andhra students killed in US in ’08

Pulluru Shashank is the ninth Andhra student studying abroad to be attacked in the past year. While he is reportedly out of danger, others were not as lucky.

* On November 4, Arpana Jinaga, a software engineer from Hyderabad, was found dead in her apartment in Seattle. Her body was brought here only last week after which her family performed the last rites.

* In September, Tummala Soumya Reddy and her cousin Vikram Reddy were found dead under mysterious circumstances in St. Louis County in Missouri.

* In May, Vempala Jyotirmai of Vijaywada, who was studying in Birmingham, was shot by her friend Nalluri Nagaraj Kumar with whom she was sharing accommodation.

* On March 4, Akkaladevi Srinivas, 29, of Karimnagar, was found dead in Pennsylvania. He was pursuing his MD in Internal Medicine from Mercy Hospital, in Scranton Town, Pennsylvania.

* Last December, two students from Hyderabad, Kiran Kumar and Chandra Sekhar, were killed in Lousiana University