Protests greet Sharon in his maiden India trip

Indian Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) activists display placards as they shout slogans during a demonstration staged to protest Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit in New Delhi yesterday. Sharon, who arrived late Monday on the first visit by an Israeli head of government to India, will stay here four-day to push for expansion of military and political cooperation between the two countries. Photo: AFP

Protests were staged in New Delhi, where Sharon was holding talks yesterday with Indian leaders, and in the western city of Mumbai, where he will travel on Thursday, the last day of his visit.

Demonstrations were also held in the southern city of Chennai and in Indian Kashmir.

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Some 2,000 communists carrying banners and placards tried to march up to the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, shouting anti-Sharon slogans, an AFP reporter saw.

"Butcher Sharon, go back, go back," screamed the protesters from various Indian communist parties which have been staunch backers of the Palestinian cause since the height of the Cold War.

"You have blood on your hands," the protesters chanted after Sharon kicked off his official visit by inspecting an honour guard at the British-built presidential palace Tuesday morning.

Anti-riot paramilitary soldiers blocked the protesters, who included women and students, but the rallyists changed tack and squatted on a street leading to a hotel, now fortified for Sharon's stay.

Also in the capital, chief Muslim cleric Syed Ahmed Bukhari led a march of some 2,000 slogan-shouting Muslims from the Jama Masjid, India's main mosque.

Waving black flags and placards that read "Down with Sharon, Sharon go back", the marchers walked a stretch of about a kilometre from the mosque but stopped short of a police cordon where they quietly dispersed after brief prayers.

Bukhari also derided Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani for inviting Sharon.

"Sharon, the killer of innocent Palestinians in Lebanon and Palestine, is the apple of our government's eye because it considers him their guru in the animosity towards Islam," he said.

Earlier Tuesday, police stopped activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from marching on the Rajghat tomb of Indian freedom champion Mahatma Gandhi ahead of Sharon's trip to the barricaded mausoleum.

The CPM argues that since Gandhi was an apostle of peace, Sharon had no right to pay homage there.

In the western economic hub Mumbai, more than 100 people staged a protest in the busy Bhendi Bazaar Muslim area, chanting anti-Israeli slogans before they were rounded up by police.

In Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-adminstered Kashmir, dozens of communists held a noisy demonstration against the Israeli leader.

"Down with Sharon. Down with Israel," shouted several hundred Kashmiri workers from the Communist Party of India (Marxist).