Indian police fired tear gas and water cannon Wednesday as Hindu nationalists staged several violent protests against an attack on a holy site sacred to both Hindus and Muslims.

Security forces were on high alert at religious shrines and key installations nationwide after the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called a day of protest.

Demonstrators clashed with police in the central city of Indore, where they stormed an airport, damaged the VIP lounge and

surged onto the runway to prevent a flight taking off, television footage showed.

Clashes also occurred in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkand state and in the national capital New Delhi, where police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a crowd of about 1,500 attempting to march on parliament.

Peaceful demonstrations were staged in a handful of other states controlled by the BJP, which claimed Hinduism itself was under attack.

The government feared that Tuesday's assault by heavily-armed

militants on the tightly guarded holy site in the northern city of Ayodhya could spark sectarian violence.

The six militants, who gained entry to the temple-mosque complex by blowing up a jeep, were all killed during a two-hour gunbattle with police.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for calm and asked all groups to refrain from making political capital out of the potentially explosive situation.

Police Wednesday said extra forces were deployed at New Delhi's metro as well at temples and

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mosques in the capital, In the western commercial hub of Mumbai extra deployments were ordered at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Mumbai stock exchange.

"All the key temples and mosques have been provided with security. We are taking all precautionary measures," Mumbai police chief A.N. Roy said.

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.

Television footage showed life in Ayodhya continuing normally although blanket security was thrown around the disputed religious site.

"Things appear pretty normal," Uttar Pradesh state home secretary Alok Sinha told AFP. "Security is on the alert and most of the shops are open."

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack and the government has not blamed any group. But the Indian media, which Wednesday gave blanket coverage to the attack, pointed a finger at Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Quoting unnamed security sources, newspapers said the style of Tuesday's assault was similar to attacks on India's parliament in December 2001 and on Akshardham temple in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

Both of those incidents were blamed on Lashkar, one of a dozen or so Islamic militant groups which

have been waging a rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 at a cost of tens of thousands of lives.

An analyst said the government would have to work hard to avoid violence.

"Given the problems surrounding Ayodhya, the authorities will do their utmost in coming days and weeks to ensure that communal tensions are contained," Londonbased Global Insight's Asia analyst Elizabeth Mills said in a statement.

"Beyond this, the central issue is still unresolved, and the propensity for further problems therefore remains significant."

Hindu activists say the Babri mosque at Ayodhya was built by Muslim rulers in the 16th century after they destroyed a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram.

Hindu zealots in December 1992 razed the mosque in hopes of reclaiming the site for the reconstruction of the Ram temple, triggering riots that left 2,000 dead across India.

Indian intelligence agencies have often said the disputed Ayodhya site is a prime target for Islamic rebels fighting in Kashmir. The city was put under a security blanket in 2002 over reports of a possible attack.

The largest militant group in Kashmir, Hizbul Mujahedin, denied any role in Tuesday's assault and pointed the blame at Hindu hardliners.

The dispute over the 80-acre (26-hectare) compound is pending before the courts.