By Alistair Scrutton

NEW DELHI, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Troops stepped up patrols in many parts of India on Saturday, especially in the restive northeast and Kashmir, as the government prepared to host French President Nicolas Sarkozy for its Republic Day celebrations.

Separatist rebel groups in India's restive northeast called for a 24-hour general strike from Friday evening across the region in protest against what they say is "forceful occupation of our land by New Delhi".

Separatists in Kashmir, including the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based alliance of Kashmiri militant groups, also called for a general strike to mark a "black day".

Every year, rebels call for the boycott of India's Republic Day and other holidays and often carry out attacks on security forces and government buildings to protest India's founding as a republic.

Policemen and soldiers patrolled the streets in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, and frisked pedestrians and passengers at bus stations.

"Surprise search and cordon operations and area domination patrols have been boosted across Kashmir to thwart any sabotage and subversion by the militants," a security official said on Friday.

Separatist violence has declined in Kashmir since India and Pakistan, who claim the region in full but rule it in parts, launched a peace process in 2004. But people are still killed almost daily in fighting between militants and soldiers.

A separatist revolt in Kashmir 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.

Police said on Friday they shot dead a top militant accused of masterminding a series of explosions outside courts in three Indian cities that killed at least 13 people last year.

In the northeast, where thousands of people have also died in separatist insurgencies, troops and police stepped up patrols across the region's eight states, guarding government buildings, bridges, railway stations and airports.

SARKOZY VISIT

Sarkozy is visiting India to cement business and political ties between the two countries, including possible lucrative nuclear power and arms deals.

He will join Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and thousands of spectators at a military procession in New Delhi on Saturday to watch parading elephants, camels and tanks in a ceremony to mark India's military might.

Security was also tighter 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.

In the central state of Chhattisgarh, which is the epicentre of a Maoist insurgency in India, thousands of extra police were deployed in the worst-hit Bastar region after a large arms cache was discovered earlier in the week. (Additional reporting Sheikh Mushtaq in Srinagar, Biswajyoti Das in Guwahati and Sujeet Kumar in Raipur; Editing by Jonathan Allen and David Fox)

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