NEW DELHI – Indian Republic Day was celebrated Wednesday under heavy security, with tensions running high in Kashmir over efforts by Hindu nationalists to hold a rally in the troubled region’s state capital.
Security was especially tight in New Delhi where large sections of the capital were sealed off for the annual parade of military hardware. Around 35,000 police personnel, including 15,000 members of the paramilitary forces, were deployed across the city for the event, which is always considered a possible target of militant attack. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was the guest of honour.
Snipers manned rooftops along the parade route, while helicopters and unmanned surveillance drones monitored the area from above while the streets remain deserted. In Muslim-majority Kashmir, where an anti-India insurgency has claimed thousands of lives since 1989, a strict curfew was enforced in the summer capital, Srinagar.
