Some 200 Muslims torched a pile of U.S. products in Bombay on Friday and smashed soft drink bottles as they urged Indians to boycott American and British goods and services to protest against the war on Iraq. "Stop using Pepsi, stop using Coke," cried one cleric, Raza Rafiq, as protesters flung soft drink bottles on the pavement of a downtown street and made a bonfire of soaps, T-shirts and shampoo jars following Friday prayers. At the Khatri mosque, one of Bombay's biggest, some 6,000 Muslims pledged not to use U.S. and British goods, Suhail Rokadia, secretary of the Raza Academy, a Bombay-based Muslim research and education group, told Reuters.

In an apparent reaction to India's criticism of the West for not pressuring Pakistan to end trans-border terrorism, the U.S. has dropped its call for a dialogue between the South Asian rivals while condemning the massacre of 24 Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir. A rare joint statement issued here by the U.S. and Britain made no mention of any dialogue but said Washington and London stood "ready to help both countries to start a process aimed at building confidence, normalising bilateral relations and resolving outstanding differences, including Kashmir". The statement, issued by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, described the massacre of 24 Hindus in Nandimarg village of Kashmir on Sunday as a "vicious and cowardly act".