With marching elephants and tanks, India hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Republic Day celebrations yesterday as security forces stayed on high alert amid a restive northeast and Kashmir.
Putin, who arrived Thursday for a two-day visit, was a special guest at the parade in central New Delhi, the highlight of the annual Republic Day festivities.
Flanked by India's President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Putin watched the parade that included T-72 tanks, rocket launchers and the supersonic Brahmos missile -- all purchased from Russia.
PHOTO: AFP
Streets were deserted across the northeastern state of Assam after separatist rebels asked people to boycott the celebrations, while shops and businesses in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar were closed after militant groups called for a general strike.
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.
"We are keeping an eye on threats. We all know ... the country ... and the kind of security environment we are living in," New Delhi police spokesman Deependra Pathak said.
In the past separatists have marked the day by attacking security forces or the celebrations themselves.
The New Delhi parade, a showpiece of military might and cultural diversity, finished peacefully -- the only "violence" being a carnivalesque reenactment of Indians killing British officers during an 1857 rebellion against colonial rule.
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.
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 2kg 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. 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. Sharpshooters were deployed on Thursday on high-rise buildings in the state's main city, Guwahati.
"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.
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