Protesters set vehicles on fire during a protest over controversial new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, Feb. 24, 2020. A policeman was killed Monday during violent clashes over controversial citizenship law in the Indian capital city Delhi, police said. (Xinhua/Str)

India rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday for US President Donald Trump on the second day of a visit high on spectacular optics, but deadly unrest exposed religious tensions that his host is accused of stoking.

The violence in New Delhi on Monday just as Trump arrived began as a standoff between supporters and opponents of a new citizenship law but degenerated into running battles between Hindus and Muslims, local media reported. 

The law, which critics say forms part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist agenda - which he denies - has sparked weeks of protests and violence but the fatalities were the first since December.

The five dead in Delhi's northeastern fringes included a police officer. More than 90 people were also wounded, police and hospital sources said, as the rioters armed with stones and even guns went on the rampage, setting fire to buildings and vehicles.

The authorities responded with tear gas and smoke grenades, sending in paramilitary security forces, shutting schools and banning the assembly of more than four people in the areas affected.

The law has raised worries abroad that Modi wants to remold secular India into a Hindu nation while marginalizing the country's 200 million Muslims, a claim Modi denies.

A senior US official told reporters that Trump would raise concerns about religious freedom during his lightning visit, calling them "extremely important to this administration."

Arriving on Monday Trump hailed India and its "tremendously successful" but "very, very tough" Modi at a rowdy rally of 100,000 at the world's largest cricket stadium in Modi's home state Gujarat.

Name-checking Bollywood films and mispronouncing Indian cricketers' names, Trump paid tribute to the four million strong Indian-American diaspora as "truly spectacular people."

The razzmatazz of the "Namaste Trump" event was recompense for a "Howdy Modi" extravaganza in Houston last year when the two leaders held hands and Trump compared Modi to Elvis Presley.

Trump and Melania flew to the Taj Mahal where they held hands at sunset. Daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner also made the most of the photo opportunity.

On Tuesday Trump and Melania, in a buttoned-down floral print shirt dress, were given a ceremonial welcome with red-coated and turbaned mounted troops, booming cannons and the "Stars and Stripes."

Shedding their shoes they then laid a wreath and showered petals at the open-air memorial where independence hero Mahatma Gandhi was cremated before they planted a tree.

AFP