Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting "Death to Bush!" rallied yesterday in New Delhi to protest a visit by US President George W. Bush.
Crowd estimates varied, but one police officer said as many as 100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies.
Among the speakers was Raj Babbar, a Hindu politician and actor, who said: "Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger. We have only one message -- killer Bush go home."
Bush was scheduled to arrive later yesterday in India, a predominantly Hindu nation of more than 1 billion people that also has one of the world's largest Muslim populations.
Popular?
While he is more popular in India than in most other countries, many here object to US policies, especially the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yesterday's protesters carried placards that read: "Bully Bush, Go Home," and "Death to America, Death to Bush."
Police, some of them armed with rifles, were heavily deployed around the fairground, but as the rally grew, protesters charged a stage where about 200 Muslim leaders were waiting to speak, knocking over television cameras.
Surindra Singh Yadav, a senior police officer in charge of crowd control, said there were about 100,000 protesters.
A day earlier, about 1,000 Muslim demonstrators in Mumbai shouted "Death to America!" and burned effigies of Bush, demanding that he be barred from visiting the country this week.
Bush's three-day visit is focused on strengthening the emerging strategic partnership between India and the US. Dozens of protests have been planned by Islamic leaders and communist politicians.
Some mosques in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where Bush will visit Friday, have already unfurled banners protesting his arrival and plan to chant verses from the Koran in hopes that it will drive him away.
Muslim groups have also called for a daylong strike to protest Bush's visit to Hyderabad, a key center of India's information technology industry. Muslims account for nearly 40 percent of the city's 7 million people.
Effigies burned
Meanwhile, members of the leftist Students Federation of India and the Communist Party of India burned effigies of Bush at three intersections in Hyderabad.
The communists, who are key allies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, also plan to protest today at India's parliament in New Delhi, a few kilometers from where Bush and Singh will meet.
Communists and Muslim oppose a deal that the two countries are working out under which India would buy nuclear fuel from the US in return for opening its civilian nuclear facilities to international inspectors. It was not clear whether the deal would be sealed during Bush's visit.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese