Friday, September 4, 2009

Mourners pay last respect as YSR's body reaches hometown

The body of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy was flown on Friday afternoon to Pulivendula, his native town in Kadapa district, for burial.

The body was flown in an army helicopter from Begumpet airport here after thousands of people paid their last respects at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in the state capital.

YSR, who died in a chopper crash Wednesday, will be laid to rest at the family estate Edupulapaya in Pulivendula town by the side of his parents.

A stampede at the stadium forced authorities to move the body to the airport an hour before schedule. Police failed to control the surging mourners, who broke barricades at several points to rush towards the body kept on a pedestal in the middle of the ground.

Several people were injured, some of them seriously, as police used force to control the crowds. As the situation was going out of control, the late leader's son Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had a word with military and police officers to shift the body to the airport.

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