WASHINGTON: Donald Trump blamed on Sunday Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of instructing his supporters to disrupt his rallies, and appeared to threaten to respond in kind.

Refusing to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric critics said was fuelling the potential for dangerous violence, the Republican presidential frontrunner tweeted, “Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disruptors aren’t told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours.”

His accusation came after a Trump rally in Chicago was called off on Friday amid scenes of violence that included fistfights and people throwing bottles in what many believed was a turning point in the campaign if not American politics.

Bernie Sanders denies asking supporters to disrupt Trump events

Speaking on CNN later, Mr Trump called protesters at his rallies “bad people that are looking to do harm to our country”.

“When these people come into (my rallies), you know, everybody thinks I’m a bad guy,” he said. “If my people went into one of (Sanders’) rallies, they’d say, ‘oh, this is a terrible thing’. They would be arrested and all sorts of things would happen to them.”

Mr Sanders denied his campaign had directed supporters to protest at Trump rallies.

“Trump’s words must be taken with a grain of salt because I think as almost every knows, this man cannot stop lying about anything,” he said, adding that Mr Trump was inciting violence because poll numbers showed he would not win a general election.

“People in America know that we cannot have a president like Trump who insults Mexicans, who insults women, who insults Muslims,” he said, also on CNN.

“People are catching on to Donald Trump. That’s why he’s getting reckless.”

Other politicians across the political spectrum have called on Mr Trump to tone down his rhetoric, saying he was fanning division by exploiting anger among the electorate.

Marco Rubio, his rival for the Republican nomination who is trailing in third place, called Mr Trump’s actions “reckless and dangerous”.

“If we reach a point in this country where we can’t have a debate about politics without it getting to levels of violence and anger,” he told CNN, “we’re going to lose our republic.”

The exchanges come ahead of primaries and caucuses in five major American states on Tuesday, with Mr Trump hoping to lock in the Republican nomination, in what is being billed as a referendum on his campaign.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2016