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- Path: sparky!uunet!ulowell!m2c!nic.umass.edu!risky.ecs.umass.edu!umaecs!vigneswa
- From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
- Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
- Subject: Indian Republic Day: Celebration from South to North
- Message-ID: <19745.2b6693ee@ecs.umass.edu>
- Date: 27 Jan 93 13:53:50 GMT
- Lines: 56
-
- The following was taken from an Associated Press Report.
-
- India : Republic day...
-
- NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- India marked its 43rd anniversary
- as a republic Tuesday with a parade of weapons that were acquired
- to defend its borders but have proved powerless against recurrent
- internal violence.
-
- The day celebrates the adoption of the constitution that
- made India a secular republic and the world's most populous demo-
- cracy. But it was shadowed by increasing sectarian unrest that
- did not take a holiday.
-
- Muslims flew black flags atop the capital's largest mosque
- to protest attacks by militant Hindus, and some Muslims boycotted
- the festivities. In Kashmir, Muslim separatists battled Indian
- security forces, and one paramilitary policeman and two militants
- were killed, police said.
-
- In southern India, a statue of independence leader Mohandas
- K. Gandhi was blown up in Villupuram and two offices of the
- governing Congress Party were damaged by blasts in nearby towns
- on the eve of Republic Day. Police blamed supporters of ethnic
- Tamils fighting for an independent homeland in the nation of Sri
- Lanka.
-
- .
- .
- .
-
- Helicopters showered hundreds of thousands of spectators
- with flower petals to begin the 90-minute spectacle of men, tanks,
- missiles, field artillery, marching bands and acrobatic motor-
- cycle riders.
-
- Security along Raj Path, the broad avenue from the Presi-
- dential Palace to the arched India Gate memorial, was so strict
- that women with handbags were turned away and people were told to
- leave their cigarette lighters outside.
-
- In Kashmir, the Muslim-majority province of northern India,
- separatis t rebels taunted Indian security forces with potshots
- from narrow lanes and windows and fired rockets during the
- Republic Day festivities at a stadium in the city of Srinagar.
-
- Gunfire crackled through the city most of the day and the
- army searched house-to-house for snipers. Hundreds of men were
- paraded in the streets in front of hooded informers who were
- pointing out militants. Neighboring towns also reported running
- clashes and paralyzing strikes.
-
- =====
-
- Vicky:
- UMass, Jan 27, 93
-