NEW DELHI, July 6: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday that India and Pakistan remained committed to making their current peace process irreversible, but cautioned that militant attacks such as the one carried out in Ayodhya on Tuesday could disrupt New Delhi’s relations with Islamabad.

According to NDTV, Dr Singh told reporters travelling with him to London ahead of a G-8 summit that “militant attacks could disrupt Indo-Pak relations, which have been steadily improving over the last couple of years.”

On Tuesday morning, five or six heavily armed terrorists launched a suicide attack on the controversial complex in Ayodhya before being killed by the security forces. Dr Singh said such attacks were an insult to humanity.

“He said such attacks had the potential to disrupt the peace talks between India and Pakistan,” NDTV said. “But he added that both countries were committed to making the peace process irreversible.” In a sharp criticism of the attack, Dr Singh said it showed that the terror infrastructure across the border was intact.

Agencies add: Indian police fired tear gas and water cannon on Wednesday as angry Hindu nationalists staged scattered protests against the Ayodhya attack.

Security forces were on high alert at religious shrines and key installations nationwide after the opposition Hindu nationalist BJP called a day of demonstrations, saying Hinduism itself was under attack.

The biggest protest took place in the capital New Delhi, where some 1,500 BJP supporters attempting to march on parliament broke through barricades and began hurling stones at police. They retaliated with tear gas and water cannon.

Among those whose eyes were left smarting by the gas was BJP president Lal Krishna Advani. He cut short an address in which he had lambasted the government for security lapses that had allowed Tuesday’s assault on the hotly-disputed site in Ayodhya.

Demonstrators also clashed with police in the central city of Indore. They stormed an airport, damaged the VIP lounge and surged onto the runway to prevent a flight taking off, television footage showed.

Scuffles also occurred in Ranchi, capital of Jharkand state, where police used batons to control crowds surging through the streets, smashing car windows and forcing shops to shut.

A call for a one-day strike in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is situated, was largely ignored, an AFP correspondent said, although the central market in the main city Lucknow was closed.—AFP