BOMBAY, India -- Authorities deployed Army troops and beefed up security in India's business capital Wednesday after the assassination of a second Hindu politician in less than a week sparked rioting and arson.
Police used batons and tear gas to disperse rioting mourners at the funeral of Premkumar Sharma, a local leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party.
The assassination of Sharma occurred just five days after another state lawmaker, Ramesh More, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen. More belonged to a radical Hindu group, the Shiv Sena, or God's Army.
Sharma's funeral procession turned violent in south Bombay, with mourners hurling rocks at a mosque and setting fire to some shops.
Police arrested a Muslim suspect in connection with Sharma's assassination.
'There appears to be an organized conspiracy behind these two murders,' Bombay police chief Amarjit Singh Samra told a press briefing.
Samra said police so far had not established any link between the two assassinations and the recent wave of terrorist bombings in the city.
Sharma was killed late Tuesday night as his left his house to attend a party to celebrate his daughter's high school graduation.
Two assassins sprayed gunfire on Sharma's car, killing him instantly and critically wounding his wife and chauffeur, according to police. Sharma's daughter, who also was shot, was listed out of danger at a city hospital.
Authorities deployed thousands of Army and paramilitary forces in Bombay to deter a major outbreak of sectarian violence in Bombay, India's industrial center and Hollywood.
Chief Minister Sharad Pawar of Maharashtra state, of which Bombay is the capital, placed police on full alert.
Pawar, India's defense minister until last March, also ordered police bodyguards for all state lawmakers.
Bombay was battered by a wave of car and suitcase bombings March 12 in one of the world's deadliest urban-terror campaigns. At least 317 people were slain and 1,300 wounded in the explosions.
More than 100 Muslim suspects have been arrested in connection with the bomb attacks. The targets of the bombers included two city landmarks -- the Bombay Stock Exchange building and the seaside headquarters of Air-India.
Interior ministry officials contend Islamic radicals carried out the bombings apparently to avenge the destruction of a disputed mosque by Hindu militants last December and the subsequent sectarian riots.
The mosque demolition triggered violent Muslim protests in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Britain. A two-month wave of communal bloodletting in India left more than 1,600 people dead -- half of them in Bombay alone.
The controversial mosque was located in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state.
Devout Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of their religion's legendary warrior-king, Lord Rama, who is worshipped as a deity. India's largest festival, Diwali, celebrates Rama's return to Ayodhya after a 14-year exile.
Hindu historians and religious leaders contend the Ayodhya mosque was built in 1529 by a Mogul conqueror on the ruins of a Rama temple he destroyed at the site. The claim has sparked a national controversy among historians and archaeologists.
The demolished mosque had a checkered history. It triggered a number of Muslim-Hindu riots since the 18th century. In 1949, Hindu radicals forcibly installed idols of their religious deities inside the small, gray, artistically insignificant structure.
Since then, the building had been a mosque from outside but a temple inside until it was destroyed last December.
