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72 injured in anti-Clinton protests in India

CALCUTTA: Seventy-two people were injured in Calcutta when security forces clashed with thousands of communists protesting against U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit to India, police and communist leaders said.

"The agitators tried to cross the police barricade, so we ordered a baton charge and used tear gas. Fifteen policemen were injured," Calcutta Deputy Commissioner of Police Nazrul Islam told Reuters.

A spokesman of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), a radical communist group, said 57 of its activists were injured in the clash.

"They attacked us brutally. Twenty-three comrades are injured seriously and seven of them have head injuries," SUCI Secretary Probash Ghosh told Reuters.

Ghosh condemned "imperialist Clinton" and the Left Front provincial government for "suppressing anti-imperialist protest".

West Bengal state has been ruled for 23 years by the Left Front, a grouping of leftist parties.

Islam said more than 2,000 protesters gathered near the American Consulate at Ho Chi Minh Street in Calcutta and burnt an effigy of Clinton.

Police said angry activists pelted stones and damaged two police vehicles.

In New Delhi, about 2,000 members of India's four left-wing political parties took to the streets to protest against Clinton's visit.

"Clinton go back," the protesters shouted as they marched towards the American Centre in the heart of the capital after Clinton began talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The marchers also burnt an effigy of the U.S. president.

Hundreds of policemen in riot gear walked alongside the protesters.

Police set up barricades just short of the American Centre and used water cannons to prevent demonstrators from breaking the cordon.

But a small group clashed with police as they made a bid to make their way to the centre.

"Say no to filthy imperialist culture," said a placard around a protester.

"Killer of five million Iraqi children go back", read another.

More than 300 people were later arrested for violating laws prohibiting mass public assemblies.

The protesters said they wanted to submit what they described as an "anti-imperialist charter" to the U.S. administration.

The charter urged the U.S. administration to immediately withdraw all economic sanctions against India.

The United States imposed trade sanctions on India and Pakistan after they conducted nuclear tests in May 1998.

The charter said the United States should stop using the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation for its "selfish interests in favour of its multinational corporations and banks".-Reuters