Two people have been killed in a stampede that occurred during the funeral of a revered politician in India on Wednesday.
The stampede was triggered when Indian Police used batons to drive back tens of thousands of mourners who had thronged the politician’s funeral.
The stampede occurred in the southeastern city of Chennai where thousands of people had come to pay their last respects to Muthuvel Karunanidhi who died on Tuesday aged 94.
A sea of mourners swelled in the streets as the coffin was taken to its resting place in the Tamil Nadu state capital.
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But there was a stampede as police pushed back against mourners as they strove for a final glimpse of Karunanidhi.
Other people were also injured in the stampede as police sources refused to confirm the reports.
The state government had initially refused permission for the late politician to be buried at the popular marina beach; the decesion did not go down well with the late politician’s supporters.
Karunanidhi’s party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which is in opposition in the state, had approached the state’s highest court for permission and it ruled that the five-time state chief minister should be buried next to his mentor C.N Annadurai at the seaside memorial.
The late politician Karunanidhi, was a charismatic self-styled champion of the poor and reshaped regional politics through his opposition to high-caste hegemony; he was idolised by legions of his supporters.
He earned the loyalty of many rural voters with a series of populist schemes and fiery speeches in support of the so-called lower castes.
Karunanidhi was a school dropout who became involved in politics at a young age and led the DMK party through 12 state elections, all of which he contested and won.
He was affectionately called “Kalaignar” or scholar; he wrote reams of poems, lyrics and books and was also a prolific screenwriter for the Tamil film industry.