August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

NEW DELHI, Aug 14: India deployed aircraft, combat troops and tens of thousands of security forces on the eve on Tuesday of its 60th anniversary of independence after new threats by Al Qaeda and separatist rebels, officials said.

In the federal capital New Delhi, some 70,000 policemen and paramilitary troops were being posted at government buildings, diplomatic enclaves and main intersections.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to kick off the celebrations on Wednesday with a speech from on top of the city's 16th-century Mughal Red Fort, which has already been sealed off to the public.

“There is nothing specific about the Al Qaeda threat but we are not leaving anything to chance,” the capital's police security chief Samsher Deol said.

“But all the same we are taking this very seriously.” “Our defence response is the same, whether the threat originates from the Al Qaeda or the Lashkar-i-Taiba,” added Deol, who is in charge of anti-terrorism operations in the city of 14 million people.

Intelligence officials said Al Qaeda's threat last week to target India had prompted stepped-up security for Independence Day.

The threat came in a video on Aug 5 in which a wanted American member of Al Qaeda warned that US diplomatic missions and other interests were “legitimate targets.” An unnamed narrator added that “the targeting of Tel Aviv, Moscow and Delhi” is also “our legitimate right.”

India was accused of killing more than 100,000 Muslims in Kashmir.

New Delhi's borders with adjoining Indian states were to be sealed off on Wednesday and a no-fly zone enforced over the capital. Batteries of anti-aircraft guns and missiles backed by air force gunships have already been deployed, defence ministry officials said.

State-run express trains, a favourite target of anti-Indian rebels, were being searched for explosives as a precaution, a railways spokesman said.

India was also stepping up security in the revolt-racked states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa where outlawed Maoist guerrillas have branded the annual event a symbol of “India's hegemony.” “We have specific intelligence inputs that Naxalites (Maoists) could try to disrupt the programme” of celebrations in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state, a senior police officer said by telephone.

In Assam, 36 people have died in a string of shootings and blasts in the run-up to the celebrations, which separatists boycott to protest New Delhi's rule over the oil, tea and timber-rich state.

In Kashmir, a young boy and two men died and 19 people were injured on Monday in a grenade blast at a busy market place, which was linked to Independence Day, police said, blaming Muslim militants.

Kashmiri rebels and separatists observe India's Independence Day as a “Black Day,” often launching attacks aimed at disrupting celebrations.

Combat troops armed with heavy weaponry had occupied dozens of buildings in Srinagar and cordoned off a sports stadium where the celebrations were scheduled to be held on Wednesday, officials said.

“We are making foolproof security arrangements to keep militants at bay,” senior police officer S.M. Sahai said in Srinagar, the urban hub of secessionist violence in the Himalayan region.

“Troops have been deployed in strength to guard all the venues,” he said.—AFP