Just in: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has honoured the six Sainiks who smeared black paint on Sudheendra Kulkarni, reports NDTV. Shiv Sena activists on Monday smeared black paint on Observer Research Foundation chairman Sudheendra Kulkarnis face for refusing to cancel former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuris book launch.


The six Shiv Sena workers who were arrested on Monday night in connection with the paint attack were released on bail today.  Among those arrested were Gajanand Patil, Shakha Pramukh (branch chief) of Shiv Sena, said police. The other accused were identified as Dinesh Prasad, Ashok Waghmare, Prakash Husbe, Samadhan Jadhav and Venkatesh Nair, they said.


Kasuris book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove: An Insiders Account of Pakistans Foreign Policy, which was recently unveiled in Delhi, was set to be launched in Mumbai on Monday. Sena had demanded that the event be scrapped and had threatened to disrupt it.


Kulkarni, who has served as speechwriter for Bharatiya Janata Party veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, had met Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at the latters residence Matoshree late Sunday night, but left without getting any assurance from him.


Kasuri said he was most upset over the unfortunate incident and asserted that while he respected the right to protest, it should be done in a democratic manner.