MADURAI, May 17: ATENSE situation prevailed in Sattur and Kamarajar towns in Madurai district after a 45-year-old Congress functionary, Karuppusamy, was hacked to death near the town post office in broad daylight today as continuing violence claimed four lives.

AIADMK councillor Durairaj and 59 others were arrested today in connection with the violent incidents in the city since last night and the attack on a police station this morning.

Police staged a flag march through the main roads as arson and violence continued in serveral pockets of the city. They seized a large quantity of petrol bombs, sickles and other weapons in raids. One teenager, who was injured in the violent incidents at Thideernagar last night, succumbed at the government hospital today.

Though city and moffusil bus services were resumed by late afternoon, they were withdrawn by 1800 hrs on the advice from police. Bus services from Tiruchirappali, Thanjavur and other major towns to Madurai and various southern districts were not operated. Many shops remained closed. Government offices, banks and other offices functioned with skeletal staff. Police said a crowd damaged 50 huts at Mullai nagar and looted the houses. A fruit stall and an automobile workshop were also attacked and set ablaze. Meanwhile, the leader of the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), Thirumavalavan, charged that the teenager, who succumbed at the Goverment Rajaji hospital today, had been killed in police firing. Anti-social elements from outside Madurai were responsible for the sporadic violence, he said.

The DPI would soon decide on the next course of action in the wake of the incidents at Madurai, he added. Many other southern districts of Tamil Nadu, including Adurai, Kamarajar and Chidambaranar, have been witnessing violent caste clashes between members of a dominant community and the Dalits for the last two weeks over the naming of a bus transport corporation after freedom fighter `Dheeran' Sundaralingam.