Three die in Indian anti-Bush protests

ANGER at US President George W Bush swept through parts of India yesterday as protesters burned his effigy and carried posters of Osama bin Laden.

Three people were killed and 18 were injured in clashes.

Late last night Mr Bush rewarded Pakistan with a high-profile visit to boost the terror ally's global standing.

Bush arrived amid extraordinary security for an overnight stay, following a surprise visit to Afghanistan and three days in Pakistan's neighbour and rival, India.

Air Force One landed after dark with its lights off and window shades pulled down to conceal the plane.

The security precautions underscored the very real, continuing terrorist threat in this poor, conservative Muslim country where an American diplomat was killed on Thursday in a suicide bombing.

"I will meet with President Musharraf to discuss Pakistan's vital co-operation in the war on terror and our efforts to foster economic and political development so that we can reduce the appeal of radical Islam," Bush said shortly before taking off for Pakistan.

While most Indians look favourably upon the United States, and though the protests have not been as large as expected, anti-Bush demonstrations were held in various Indian cities by communists and Muslim groups during his visit.

Violence erupted in Lucknow when dozens of armed Muslims tried to force Hindu shop owners to shut their stores to protest Mr Bush's visit, police said. The two sides argued, exchanged blows, and finally shot at each other, killing a Muslim teenager.

Television stations showed shrieking people carrying the injured on fruit carts through narrow streets choked with protesters.

In Hyderabad, demonstrators burned an effigy of Mr Bush around the time that he arrived there.

Several hundred communist and Muslim demonstrators marched through the city, and shops in the Muslim-dominated Charminar neighbourhood were closed in protest.

Later, some worshippers at a Charminar mosque threw rocks at police after Friday prayers. Officers surrounded the mosque with barbed wire and called on protesters to disperse peacefully. Two protesters and two policemen were wounded.

Police in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region, clashed with worshippers protesting the visit. About a dozen people were wounded, police said.

There was heavy security all over Hyderabad, one of India's burgeoning hi-tech centres, as Bush arrived in the city for a few hours on the second stop of his visit.

Communist parties and Muslim groups are upset with the growing ties between the two countries and the American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While tens of thousands of people have taken part in protests against Mr Bush's three-day visit, the numbers fell far short of the millions that organisers had threatened to bring to the streets.