& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Khaleda, Quayle, other world leaders attend funeral: 20 killed in violence

Rajiv cremated amid tight security
NEW DELHI, May 24: Emo tionallv stunned and politically adrift, the world's largest democracy said farewell Friday to assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, reports agencies
To the chanting of sacred Hindu hymns and tn the pres ence of thousands of mourners Gandhi was consigned to the flames here with full state honours.
Army buglers sounded the last post as Gandhi s body was consumed by flames on the sprawling grounds of Shakti Sthal (Place of Power), watched by an array of foreign dignitaries.
At 5.25 pm (1155 GMT), Gandhi's teenaged son Rahul hit the sandalwood pyre on which his father's mutilated body lay, wrapped In linen and covered with rose petals, as the chanting of ancient Vedic hymns rose to a crescendo.
Flames leapt high within 10 minutes, and surging crowds raised slogans hailing Gandhi.
Dressed in mourning white and assisted by a battery of chanting priests, the 17-year-old Rahul, barefoot and wear Ing the traditional Hindu sacred thread, held a taper soaked with clarified butter to the pyre.
Before lighting the pyre he showered rose petals on the body, then stood In silence for a minute and walked round the bier sprinkling water from an earthen pitcher held by and elderly priest.
He then emptied the pitcher below his father's head and. after untying the ropes that bound the body, he again showered rose petals assisted by his distraught mother and sister.
The cremation recalled the tragic moment of seven years ago when on the same site on the banks of the sacred Jamuna river. Gandhi had performed the last rites of his mother and predecessor Indira, who was slain by two Sikh guards
An estimated 50,000 mourners attended today's fu neral, held three days after Gandhi's slaying in a bomb blast while campaigning for elections In an obscure southern Indian town.
His Italian bom widow Sonia. her eyes shaded by dark glasses, and their daughter Prtyanka. their white saris whipped by a hot. dusty wind stood back from the pyre, which was placed on a red brick platform seven feet high.
Mrs Gandhi, a Roman Catholic, insisted on making the Journey, senior police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The 43-year-old widow rode In a white Indian-made Ambassador car with dark ened widows. "Black Cat* commandos, members of India's most elite security force, trotted alongside.
Foreign dignitaries Included US Vice President Dan Quayle. Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Prince Charles of Britain. Afghanistan's President Najibullah. Germany's Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher. Soviet Vice President Gennady Yanayev. Palestine LiteraUon Organisations Chairman Yasser Arafat. Pakistanis Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and former Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.
The body was brought on a flower-bedecked gun carriage after a 16-kllometre (10 mile) drive.
A helicopter swooped low and showered red rose petals over the body as it was brought from Teen Murti House Into the roadway where a crowd of several thousand waited in blistering heat.
The convoy moved at a snail's pace under a blazing mid-summer sun after setting off from the stately mansion. Gandhi's childhood home and the official residence of his grand father and India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
It passed through the city's main thoroughfares, guarded front and back by Jeeploads of soldiers, as large crowds broke several times past the barricades. erected the length of the route, in an attempt to reach the bier.
Gandhi's body had lain in state for two days at Teen Murti House, where thousands of mourners including an array of foreign dignitaries paid their last respects to the slain former Prime Minister
US Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife Marilyn who cut short a tour of Southeast Asia to arrive here in time for the funeral, called him one of world's new generation of leaders
Bush
In Washington. President George Bush on Friday paid his respects at the Embassy of In dia tn memory of assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. and called for calm on that troubled country.
Bush told Indian Ambas sador Abid Hussain that Gandhi s death Tuesday in a bomb blast was a crushing blow
Bush signed a condolence book, then beckoned his sides and his son. Marvin. to sign as well "We went to show how wc all feel' Bush said He told the ambassador that Gandhi was a good friend "You make real friendships from time to time In our business This one was seal.
Gandhi, prime minister for five years after succeeding his mother, died Instantly In Tuesday's blast, suspected to be the handiwork of Srl Lankan Tamil separatist guerillas
Meanwhile, the toll tn the (larrup following the asaasst nation of Gandhi rose to 20 today with nine more persons were killed in Tripura and Tamil Nadu while calm to the other states affected by violence.
The 47 year old grandson of India's first Prime Minister had bowed out of power tn 1989 but been tipped as the front-runner tn current elections. postponed until next month because of the assassination
Departure from tradition
Gandhi's Italian-bom widow Sonia, in a departure from Hindu tradition, followed the body to the cremation site and participated In the placement of small logs on the pyre.
Ashen-faced, her eyes hidden by large sun glasses, she stood beside the couple's 21-year-old daughter Priyanka.
Symbolic gesture
When the logs piled over the body burn down. It is the son s task to smash his father's skull with a cudgel to release the soul. Rahul took the long wooden stave and inserted it into the burning pyre tn what seemed a symbolic gesture.
The priest who performed the last rites of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1984 conducted the rites for her son.
Fortitude beyond her age
Young, white-sarl-clad Priyanka showed fortitude beyond her age as she comforted her mother Sonia while a composed Rahul performed the last rites.
Film star Amitabh Bachchan, a close friend of the Gandhi family, lent Rahul a helping hand during the 45-minute ceremony attended by a galaxy of foreign and Indian leaders apart from multitudes who had joined the funeral procession.
Composed exterior
As the body was consigned to the flames on the banks of the sacred river. Yamuna, at a site close to the Samadhts of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indtra
- Gandhi, the eyes of millions of Indians on the spot or on television sets were riveted on bespectacled Rahul who kept a composed exterior
Security
Nearly 60.000 police wtre deployed as the former prime minister's funeral procession wound through the capital under a searing sun tn 40 degree Celsius (104-degree Fahrenheit) heat. An unknown number of army troops were on full alert