Indian police claimed on Sunday they had arrested a cell of heavily-armed terrorists who had been planning to attack the annual Republic Day parade through New Delhi on Monday.
"The level of security alert is now on maximum," Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police, told Reuters.
He said three members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba had been detained in the capital along with three kg of high-grade explosive.
Chand said rocket-propelled grenades, detonators and timers were also recovered from the terrorists, who he said had plans to attack the parade.
Helicopters and armed commandos will maintain air and route surveillance during the Republic Day parade, an anniversary of India's birth as a republic in 1950.
BSF OFFICER KILLED: An Indian Border Security Force (BSF) officer was killed on Sunday in an ambush in occupied Kashmir despite tightened security ahead of Republic Day of India on Monday, a police spokesman said.
He said armed men with assault rifles and grenades ambushed a convoy of the BSF in Higam, 40 kilometres north of occupied Srinagar.
Deputy Commandant Niranjal Pal, working with the BSF's medical wing, was hit in the head and chest, which killed him on the spot.
"There were no other casualties," the spokesman said. The village was sealed off and a search operation was launched.
Troops recovered 12 rocket propelled grenade launchers, 62 grenades and other arms and ammunition, including bomb materials, pistols, detonators and more than 1,000 rounds of pistol and rifle bullets from a hide-out in Kupwara district, in occupied Kashmir, an army spokesman said. Venues for the Republic Day functions have been attacked in the past.
In occupied Srinagar, occupation security forces on Sunday recovered 20 kilograms of deadly RDX (research developed explosives) from a suspected hide-out, a police spokesman said.
The discovery brings to 45 kilograms the amount of RDX discovered by BSF personnel in occupied Srinagar in the past two days.
Indian occupation troops on Sunday took up positions on roof tops and at key points near the stadium in occupied Srinagar, where occupied Kashmir's puppet finance minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh will unfurl the Indian flag on Republic Day.
The main event is to be held in occupied Jammu, the winter capital, where security has been put on high alert.
Occupied Kashmir's freedom groups have called for a strike on Monday, newspapers reported. They urged people to remain indoors.