Peru to cremate body of Shining Path founder and dispose of his ashes

FILE PHOTO: Shining Path guerrrilla leader Abimael Guzman, seen in a jail after his capture in Peru, on September 24, 1992. REUTERS/Anibal Solimano

LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian authorities on Thursday said they had decided to cremate the body of Abimael Guzman, the founder of the Shining Path rebel group that killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s, and spread his ashes in an undisclosed location.

The cremation would end over a week of controversy over what to do with the body of one of Peru's most reviled figures. Guzman died in prison on Sept. 11 at the age of 86 from an infection while serving a life sentence for terrorism.