India on high alert for Republic Day celebrations
Source: Reuters
By Palash Kumar NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Security forces were on high alert in India on Friday, especially in the troubled northeast and Kashmir, as the nation hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Republic Day celebrations showcasing its military might. Separatist rebels in the northeastern state of Assam have asked people to boycott the celebrations, while in Kashmir militant groups have called for a general strike as India marks its 1950 founding as a republic. Adding to jitters, police in New Delhi said they arrested late on Thursday an explosives-laden militant from a group battling Indian rule in Kashmir. Indian and Pakistani troops also exchanged small arms fire across their disputed border. Putin, visiting India to cement ties between the two long-term allies with lucrative nuclear power and arms deals, will join Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and thousands of spectators at a military procession in New Delhi to watch parading elephants, camels and tanks. "We are keeping an eye on threats. We all know ... the country ... and the kind of security environment we are living in," said New Delhi police spokesman Deependra Pathak. In the past separatists opposed to India's adoption of the republican constitution have marked the day by attacking security forces or the celebrations themselves. Tight security arrangements were in place in Delhi, which was the scene of three bomb explosions in 2005 in which 66 people were killed -- although these attacks did not occur on Republic Day. The attacks were blamed on Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. EXPLOSIVES, DETONATORS Police said they arrested a suspected militant from Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group battling Indian rule in its part of Kashmir, who was carrying more than 2 kg (4.4 lb) of explosives and two detonators outside a New Delhi metro station. Late on Thursday a suspected member of a powerful rebel group in Assam, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), was killed when a bomb he was carrying exploded, while two other blasts left one dead and at least seven wounded. The run up to this year's Republic Day was marked by growing violence in Assam in which more than 80 people have been killed this month. Sharp shooters were deployed on high-rise buildings in the state's main city, Guwahati, on Thursday. "The militants are likely to launch timer-controlled bombs or grenade attacks," said Khagen Sharma, a senior police officer. The ULFA insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people since it began in 1979. The northeastern region with seven states, is home to more than two dozen insurgencies. Security was also bolstered in Kashmir where a separatist revolt against Indian rule has killed more than 40,000 people since it began in 1989, according to officials. Human rights groups put the toll at around 60,000 dead or missing. India and Pakistani troops exchanged small arms fire after an attempt by anti-India militants to cross their heavily-guarded border in the disputed territory of Kashmir, the army said. Security was also beefed up along the porous India-Nepal border, which police say has been used in the past for Pakistan and Bangladesh-based militants to cross into the country. In the central state of Chhattisgarh, which is the epicentre of a Maoist insurgency in India, about 10,000 paramilitary personnel were deployed in the worst-hit Bastar region. (Additional reporting by Onkar Pandey, Prithwish Ganguly in New Delhi, Sheikh Mushtaq in Srinagar, Biswajyoti Das in Guwahati and Sujeet Kumar in Raipur)
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