Several thousand Hindu hardliners joined an anti-Pakistan protest today after a massacre in an Indian temple by Muslim gunmen suspected of links to Islamabad.
But there were no signs of Hindu-Muslim clashes as anger about the temple raid turned against Islamic Pakistan rather than mostly Hindu India's minority Muslim population.
"Pakistan has been a one-stop shop for terrorism in our region," foreign ministry spokeswoman Ms Nirupama Roa said.
Pakistan, which has called the Indian allegations ridiculous, came close to war with India in June and the nuclear-armed rivals have a million men mobilised on their border in a standoff over Islamabad's alleged support of Islamic militants.
Police had to use water cannon to disperse some 3,000 protesters, who were marching towards the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi's plush diplomatic area, and who included many from the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
India had put some 3,000 troops on standby to prevent communal violence in the western state of Gujarat after Tuesday's attack in state capital Gandhinagar in which 28 worshippers died.
At least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died earlier this year in reprisals in Gujarat after a Muslim mob torched a train in the town of Godhra on February 27, burning 59 Hindus to death.
But barring some isolated incidents, the state was calm and the Indian army presence light. Some 60 troops in army trucks were seen driving through Gujarat's main city Ahmedabad.