Indian software engineer shot dead in US

Akshay Vishal, 26, was shot in his legs in Little Rock, Arkansas on Tuesday, his father Lakshman Murthy, a BSNL employee, said.

Vishal sustained multiple injuries in the attack by suspected Afro-Americans and was operated upon in a hospital in Little Rock, but succumbed to injuries, he said.

"He was near his home when somebody perhaps demanded some money. He was fired at and bullets hit him in the leg. Due to this, his arteries bled profusely which led to kidney failure," Murthy said.

The engineer went to the US in 2005, his father Murthy, a resident of Begumpet area of Hyderabad, said.

The killing is the latest one in the series of murders of Indian students and professionals in the US.

Arpana B Jinaga, an IT engineer in Seattle was found dead in her apartment on November 3 while an engineering student in Southern Illionis University T Soumya Reddy was found murdered in September.

Her cousin Vikram Reddy, another software engineer in Chicago, was also found dead nearby.

A Srinivas, a post-graduate medical student was found murdered in Pennsylvania in March while A Kirankumar and K Chandrasekhar Reddy, both PhD students, were shot dead at Louisiana University in December 2007.

On November 16 last year, Pulluri Shashank, a native of Warangal in AP, survived a violent attack by unidentified miscreants in Tennesse.

Akshay Vishal's father Murthy said he sought the cooperation of state energy minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, who looks after issues related to non-resident Telugus, and was assured of all possible help.

Vishal completed his engineering from Chaitanya Bharati institute of technology and left for the US in 2005, family sources said.

Vishal did MS in the US and joined Satyam Computers, they said. He was working for Falcon Jet Airways, a client of Satyam Computers.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party leader C Vidyasagar Rao alleged that the governments at the Centre and state have not taken any concrete steps to prevent the killings of Indian professionals in the US.

"Our government is helping parents to bring back the bodies who were killed in America. But they are not doing anything to prevent such incidents," state BJP president B Dattatreya said.