Thousands throng streets for funeral for India's Hindu extremist leader

Описание: (18 Nov 2012)
1. Pan of crowd gathered to pay their respects to Hindu extremist leader, Bal Thackeray
2. Mid of son of Bal Thackeray, Uddhav Thackeray, and family members with Thackeray's body
3. Guns shot into the air by the police to pay homage to Thackeray
4. Mid of political leaders who came to pay homage
5. Wide of police firing guns in the air
6. Close of floral wreath passing through crowd
7. Mid of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan arriving
8. Mid of a crying female relative of Thackeray being led in
9. Mid of relatives of Thackeray arriving
10. Mid of Opposition leader L.K.Advani paying homage to Thackeray
11. Thackeray's body being carried onto funeral pyre
12. Mid of female mourners
13. Thackeray's son, Uddhav Thackeray, setting light to the pyre
14. SOUNDBITE: (Marathi) Shiv Sena activist, (no name given):
"It is hard to believe that he is not here any more. We were told will be able to see him for the last time, but we could not even get a glimpse which I will always regret."
15. Mid of the funeral pyre burning
STORYLINE
Hundreds of thousands of grieving supporters thronged the streets of Mumbai on Sunday for the funeral of Bal Thackeray, a Hindu extremist leader linked to waves of mob violence against Muslims and migrant workers in India.
Nearly 20-thousand policemen were on hand because of the violent history of the group.
The mourners, however, remained calm and orderly as the body of Thackeray was cremated at Shivaji park where he had made his political debut addressing his first public rally 46 years ago.
Top Indian politicians, industrialists and Bollywood stars including L.K. Advani, Sharad Pawar, Anil Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan, earlier placed floral wreathes beside Thackeray's body, which was wrapped in India's national flag and wearing his trademark dark sunglasses.
His son and successor, Uddhav Thackeray, lit the funeral pyre amid chants of "Thackeray is immortal" by the supporters.
A woman who had come to pay her last respects said it was hard to believe Thackeray was gone.
"We were told will be able to see him for the last time, but we could not even get a glimpse which I will always regret," she said.
Thackeray, an 86-year-old powerful, rabble-rousing orator for Shiv Sena died on Saturday following a cardio-respiratory arrest.
Policemen carried his body to the cremation site at the end of a daylong funeral procession as the Maharashtra state government, headed by the governing Congress party, announced a state funeral for him.
Life in Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment capital came to a halt as people voluntarily closed shops and businesses and kept taxis and auto-rickshaws off the roads.
Indian media reports said more than 1.5 million people attended his funeral procession.
There were no official estimates of the mourners.
Thackeray's Shiv Sena is among the most xenophobic of India's Hindu right-wing political parties and held power in Mumbai from 1995 to 2000.
His supporters often called him "Hindu Hriday Samrat" or "Emperor of Hindu hearts".
In the early 1990s he led a successful campaign to drop what he called the "colonially tainted" name Bombay and replace it with Mumbai.
In 1992, members of Hindu right-wing groups, including Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, were instrumental in destroying a 16th century mosque in north India that they said was the birthplace of the Hindu god Rama, and Thackeray was blamed for the violence and rioting that followed.
In Mumbai alone, nearly 1,000 people were killed.
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