Kanyakumari: Violence marked the funeral procession of a slain Hindu Munnani leader here on Friday, with suspected party cadres pelting stones and damaging windscreens of several state buses in various areas in the city, leading to a baton charge by police to disperse them.
Windscreens of several state-run buses were smashed, police said. Bus services were hit for some time in the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil-Tirunelveli route, they said, adding that six workers of Hindu outfits were arrested for the violence.
Top BJP leaders, including Minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan and senior BJP leader L Ganesan, besides the party`s district functionaries, attended the funeral of Suresh Kumar in the evening and paid floral tributes.
The funeral procession, which began by 8 am at Nagercoil culminated at Kakkodu by noon.
A native of nearby Kakkodu village, Suresh Kumar (47) was hacked to death in Chennai on June 18 by suspected extremists.
Meanwhile, police in Chennai have formed special teams to apprehend the culprits.
Yesterday, parts of the state had witnessed protests by pro-Hindu outfits and BJP, besides stray incidents of stone pelting on buses after the murder of Kumar, Tiruvallur district president of Hindu Munnani.
Activists of Hindu outfits, who converged in front of the Kilpauk Government Medical College Hospital in Chennai to take Kumar`s body after autopsy, resorted to stone-pelting and blocked traffic on arterial Ponnamalle High Road.
Stone-pelting on buses were reported from Aminjikarai area in Chennai as well. Similar protests were held in Vellore, Tirunelveli and Madurai.
In Mettupalayam, on the foothills of Nilgiris near Coimbatore, about 100 Hindu Munnani activists were arrested yesterday when they attempted to stage demonstration.
Kumar was severely attacked by unidentified persons while closing his photocopy shop in suburban Ambattur.
He was immediately rushed to a private hospital in a critical condition but died without responding to treatment within hours, police said.
