TENS of thousands of Tunisians chanting anti-government slogans have attended the funeral of an assassinated opposition politician.
Military helicopters hovered overhead and tensions threatened to boil over as mourners came from all over the country on Friday to mark the assassination of 48-year-old lawyer Chokri Belaid, a harsh critic of the Islamist government.
The country was largely shut down due to a general strike.
Efforts to stem the country's worst crisis since the 2011 revolution deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali have so far failed and the funeral has become a platform to mobilise popular anger.
The anti-government sentiment at the cemetery was palpable and there was a brief scuffle when officials identified as being with the governing coalition were stopped by the crowd from entering.
The army, one of the few state institutions people still respect, provided security for the funeral march.
Once the standard bearer in the region for its political consensus, the country's transition to democracy has been shaken by a economic problems and political turmoil.
Belaid had accused the ruling Islamist Ennahda party of resorting to thugs to attack opposition rallies. His family and allies accuse the party of complicity in his killing on Wednesday. Although they have offered no proof, the allegations have fanned popular dissatisfaction with the government.
"We can't accept that they assassinate freedom, that they assassinate democracy - that's what they are doing - we are burying a martyr," said Mohammed Souissi, a 63-year-old veterinarian who showed up at the cemetery, where the crowd seemed unfazed by the intermittent rain and sang the national anthem.
More than a dozen offices of the Ennahda party were attacked overnight in towns around the country, Tunisian media reported. Schools, shops, banks and other institutions were all shuttered following the general strike.
Tunisia's prime minister offered to replace the government after Belaid's killing in response to longstanding opposition demands, but that attempt may have backfired as his ruling Islamist party rejected his decision - exposing internal divisions between moderates and hardliners.
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