Around 15,000 people, mostly from communist parties and a host of other organisations, attended an antiwar rally in Hyderabad on Sunday.

While one procession was taken out from Charminar in the Old City, another started from Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram in the New City. The two converged at the Exhibition Grounds.

Dr P M Bhargava, scientist and former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, led the rally from Charminar under the banner of Forum Against War on Iraq.

The demonstration ended with the adoption of a resolution denouncing the US aggression and urging the Indian government to unequivocally condemn the war.

The participants pledged not to use American soft drinks, food products and other goods and services.

Dr Bhargava asked the protestors to shun the products manufactured by Indian companies with American stake. "We will not open accounts in American banks and will not avail the services of American insurance companies," he said.

The forum represents political parties, trade unions, farmers' organisations, social activists, women, youth and non-governmental outfits.

The protestors shouted slogans like 'Down with American imperialism', 'Bush Number one terrorist of the world', 'Bush and Blair, enemies of humanity', 'No blood for oil' and 'We are with our Iraqi brothers'.

The agitators burnt effigies of President George W Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Folk singers, artistes and writers from Left organisations, including revolutionary poet and balladeer Gaddar and revolutionary writer Varavara Rao, joined the rally. Beating drums, they danced to the tunes of revolutionary songs denouncing US imperialism.

Communist Party of India state secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, CPI-Marxist state secretary B V Raghavulu, leaders of seven other Left parties, and Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen legislators Asaduddin Owaisi and Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, were among the prominent participants. 

The declaration termed the war as "an unbridled, deliberate and premeditated act of aggression that lays bare the desire of American government to exercise total control over the destinies of all the people of the world and use them ruthlessly for meeting its own selfish and convoluted objectives in a way that would put the feudal regime, the colonial rule and the totalitarian government of the past, to shame".

"We believe that no one [including the people of US] would gain by this war while everyone and every nation will lose out in one way or the other. We recognise that if only the money that is being spent by US and its allies on the war against Iraq were to be spent on humanitarian causes, the world could become a safer and better place to live in," it said.

It also urged the United Nations "to work out a time-bound programme to repair the damages caused by the war with the expenses being payable by US and its allies in this unfair, immoral and illegal war, which neither has the sanction of the UN nor the vast majority of the people of the world."

Some youth mistook two Canadians for Americans and bashed them up. Leftist leaders came to the rescue of Jonathan and his brother, activists of World Peace Initiative, who had come to attend the antiwar rally. The organisers apologised to the two and got them seated on the dais.

The Canadians said the incident reflected the worldwide anger against the US for its illegal invasion of Iraq. Two Germans, a French and a Spaniard also participated in the rally. Julia and George, German social activists, said, "We oppose this war and hence we came to join this massive demonstration."