Thaindian News

Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), April 20 (IANS) An uneasy calm prevailed in Ratnagiri district Wednesday morning with security tight and orders in place to ban gathering of five or more people, two days after police firing claimed one life, officials said.

The district headquarters Ratnagiri and other major towns or villages like Dapoli, Chiplun, Jaitapur, Madhban, Sakhri-Nate woke up to a peaceful atmosphere, a day after a shutdown call given by the Shiv Sena to protest the police firing.

A crowd was protesting the proposed setting up of the 9,900 MW Jaitapur nuclear power plant Monday when police opened fire at it, killing Tabrez Pehekar and injuring others.

The grieving relatives of Pehekar and activists, who refused to claim Pehekar’s body until the police officer who ordered firing on the protesters was suspended, finally decided to take possession of his body Wednesday morning, an office-bearer of the Konkan Bachao Samiti said.

“The body has started decomposing as there is no air-conditioning in the morgue at Ratnagiri Civil Hospital. Since the autopsy was completed by a five-member team of medicos, we have decided to claim Tabrez’s body,” Samiti chief Vaishali Patil told IANS.

The funeral will be held in Sakhri-Nate village, around 80 km from here, later Wednesday afternoon, she said.

Though a large number of activists were refused entry to the hospital premises Wednesday, the authorities permitted Shirin, Tabrez’s widow, and other close relatives to complete the formalities before claiming his body for the last rites.

Several parts of the coastal district have witnessed sporadic incidents of violence as thousands protested the Jaitapur nuclear power project coming up here.