India hosts Sarkozy amid tight security

By Alistair Scrutton

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India hosted French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Republic Day on Saturday with a parade showcasing its military might amid tight security across the country, especially in the restive northeast and Kashmir.

Around 20,000 troops and police, including snipers on high-rise buildings, guarded India's capital and checked cars coming into the city. Sandbagged posts dotted the city centre.

Every year, rebels call for the boycott of India's Republic Day and often carry out attacks on security forces and government buildings to protest India's founding as a republic, but few incidents were reported this year in the run-up to the parade.

In Kashmir, people stayed indoors and businesses were closed in Srinagar after separatists called a strike to mark what they say is a "black day".

"Indian forces have let loose a reign of terror across Kashmir," Kashmir's separatist alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (freedom) Conference, said in a statement.

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.

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

Soldiers killed two separatist guerrillas in the region's oil- and tea-rich Assam on Friday night.