India fears militant attack during Obama's visit

India fears that militants will like to see if they can get worldwide attention, says Indian Home Secretary Pillai.

NEW DELHI: India fears militants in Kashmir could stage attacks during the visit of United States President Barack Obama to draw global attention to the region that has been embroiled in a bloody insurgency for two decades.

Home Secretary Gopal Pillai on Wednesday told CNN-IBN television on Wednesday that the country was on alert to prevent attacks, such as the killing of 35 Sikhs in Kashmir by militants in 2000, when then US President Bill Clinton visited India.

"That's the type of fear we have, that innocent civilians will be killed," said Pillai, the country's top internal security official.

"Definitely they (militants) will like to see if they can have any spectacular event where they can get worldwide attention."

Obama is due to visit India in early November to help boost trade and diplomatic ties with the emerging Asian power.

New Delhi's rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir has been a leading reason cited by militants for several strikes on India, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

India blames Pakistan for backing the militants and providing support for the attacks, charges that Islamabad denies.

The Himalayan region, claimed in full by India and Pakistan but ruled by the nuclear-armed rivals in part, has in the past four months seen the largest pro-independence demonstrations in two decades.

More than 100 protesters have been killed by police, and the outspoken Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy last week added to calls for the state to secede from India.

Since a violent insurgency broke out in Kashmir in 1989, over 47,000 people have been killed. But international focus on the region has waned in recent years, with attention diverted by the war against militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.