Sporadic violence as trade unions begin two-day strike across India

NEW DELHI – Sporadic violence has broken out in India at the beginning of a two-day strike by labour unions protesting rising prices and government policies to open the economy.

Millions of bank and factory workers stayed away from work and public transport was shut down Wednesday after India’s major trade unions called the countrywide strike.

Workers armed with iron rods smashed factory windows and set a fire truck and several cars on fire in Noida, an industrial suburb of Delhi.

A labour leader was fatally crushed when he tried to stop buses from leaving a terminus in the northern city of Ambala.

Trade unions oppose government policies to open the retail, banking and aviation sectors to foreign investors in a bid to jumpstart India’s sputtering economy.