Indian troops battling separatist Islamic militants in Kashmir defused a roadside bomb and conducted more searches ahead of the Republic Day.
SRINAGAR: Indian troops battling separatist Islamic militants in Kashmir on Wednesday defused a roadside bomb and conducted more searches ahead of the Republic Day, officials said.
The device was defused in the northern town of Bandipora early Wednesday morning, a day after militants bombed a security vehicle killing three federal policemen and injuring five others in southern Kashmir.
Militants routinely increase their attacks on Indian troops ahead of Republic Day, celebrated every year on January 26.
"The bomb was sniffed out by the dog squad of the army," a police officer, Javed Ahmed, said. It was the second bomb defused by the troops in as many days in Bandipora, where two more grenade attacks on Tuesday wounded a member of the security forces.
Ahmed said soldiers and police have sealed many areas in Kashmir for search operations following reports militants were hiding there.
"Through these searches we want to keep the militants at bay during the Republic Day," he said.
Tuesday's bombing was claimed by the region's most powerful militant group, Hizbul Mujahedin, which wants to fold Indian Kashmir into Pakistan. Kashmir's police chief Gopal Sharma reviewed the security arrangements late Tuesday for the official Republic Day celebrations, a police statement said.
Both the hard-line and moderate factions of the region's main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat Conference, have called for a 'total strike' on January 26.
Kashmiris have spurned Republic Day since the eruption of an insurgency against Indian rule in 1989.
The day marks the date in 1950 when the country's new republican constitution came into effect. India gained independence from Britain in 1947, but went through a transitional phase when it was still classed as a dominion.
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