Hindu nationalist and communist groups have staged pro and anti-US street demonstrations in the Indian capital, as Donald Trump was being feted by prime minister Narendra Modi in the western city of city of Ahmedabad.
One police officer was killed in the violence, a spokesman said. Eleven officers were also injured as they were hit by rocks while trying to separate rival groups, the New Delhi police control room said.
The Press Trust of India news agency said three protesters also were killed during clashes in several parts of the Indian capital.
A group of Hindu nationalists held a prayer meeting in which they put a vermilion mark on the forehead of the US president’s photograph on a poster, blessing him, while a priest chanted Hindu hymns wishing Mr Trump success in his endeavour for strong ties with India.
Vishnu Gupta, president of Hindu Sena, said: “Through a fire ritual we are invoking God to bless America and India.”
He said he wanted Mr Trump and Mr Modi to fight radical Islam and the spread of terrorism.
Elsewhere in New Delhi, dozens of supporters of the Communist Party of India carried a banner reading “Trump go back”. Anti-Trump street demonstrations also broke out in the cities of Gauhati in the north east, Kolkata in the east and Hyderabad in the south.
Doraisamy Raja, the Communist Party’s general secretary, accused Mr Modi of succumbing to US pressure on access to the Indian market rather than protecting India’s interests.
American dairy farmers, distillers and drug makers have been eager to break into India, the world’s seventh-biggest economy, but talks between Washington and New Delhi appeared to have fizzled out.
The two leaders are scheduled to announce agreements at a news conference on Tuesday, capping Mr Trump’s two-day visit.
Also in New Delhi, police fired tear gas as clashes erupted between hundreds of supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law that provides fast-track naturalisation for some foreign-born religious minorities but not Muslims.
Critics say the country is moving towards a religious citizenship test. At the rally in Ahmedabad, Mr Trump praised India’s history of religious tolerance, saying many faiths “worship side by side in harmony”.
The protesters blocked a busy road in a north-eastern district of New Delhi, replicating similar sit-ins in several parts of India since the law was passed in December.
Police used tear gas as the rival groups hurled rocks at each other and set some houses, shops, vehicles and a petrol pump on fire. Police closed access to two metro stations in the area.
New Delhi’s highest elected official, Arvind Kejriwal, tweeted that the violence was “very distressing”.
A quarter-mile stretch of road was strewn with bricks and stones after the clash.
The New Delhi television news channel said authorities deployed paramilitary forces to defuse the situation.
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