Kansas Shooting: Sunayana Dumala, Wife Of Killed Indian, Says She Wants To Return To Fulfill His Dreams

New Delhi: Sunayana Dumala, the wife of Srinivas Kuchibhotla -- the Hyderabad engineer who was shot dead at a bar in Kansas last month -- asked some hard questions about the security of Indians working in the US, where, she says, she wants to return to fulfill her husband's dream. In a Facebook post paying a tribute to her husband -- Ms Dumala talks of it as a question that's in "every immigrant's mind... do we belong here?"

Mr Kuchibhotla  was at the bar with his friend, when a man allegedly yelled "get out of my country" and shot at them.  Mr Kuchibhotla died. His friend Alok Madasani was injured. So was another man who tried to intervene, Ian Grillot. Both have survived.

Ms Dumala said she was determined to resume life in Kansas where the couple had moved few years ago with dreams, built their house and planned to start a family. Thanking Congressman Kevin Yoder and Senator Jerry Moran for working on her migration status, she wrote, "This is my Srinu's dream, and it is the least I could do for my Srinivas - fulfill his dreams through my eyes - and it is for this I have to come back to the USA".

Mr Kuchibhotla was on H1B visa while Ms Dumala was on H4 dependent visa and there are concerns that the Donald Trump government might not allow her to return and live in the US.

Ms Dumala had earlier said they had stayed in the US despite the apprehensions of their families because her husband was not fearful and refused to abandon "the country he loved".

In her Facebook post, she wrote, "On what basis we decide a person is good or bad, and of course, it's not based on the color of your skin. So what decides that?"

These issues, she wrote, are talked about often, but then people forget it. "But the fight must go on towards eradicating hatred from the minds of people. So what is the government going to do to stop hate crime?" she wrote.

In the moving post, where she spoke of her husband's childhood, hopes and dreams, Ms Dumala also wrote: "It is so funny that you were my editor for any important email I had written, but now, for the first time, I am having to do it myself."

Her post ended with:  "Lastly, to answer the question that is in every immigrant's mind, DO WE BELONG HERE? Is this the same country we dreamed of and is it still secure to raise our families and children here?"

Hours after Ms Dumala's post, US President Donald Trump's press office reacted saying the shooting was "disturbing". "While the story is evolving, early reports out of Kansas are equally disturbing," said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. But in absence of any strong words condemning the incident, sharp comments came from Democrats' Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.