New Delhi  - Two suspected militants arrested in the Indian capital were planning terror strikes ahead of India's Independence Day, news reports said Friday.

Javed Ahmed and Ashiq Ali, both in their 30s, were picked up by the Delhi Police anti-terror wing late Thursday, PTI news agency reported, citing police sources.

Two AK-47 rifles, two grenades, around 100 cartridges and some documents were recovered from the militants, police said.

The two men are from Kupwara district of the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and owed allegiance to the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Hizb-ul Mujahideen, police claimed.

The Hizb-ul Mujahideen group was founded by Kashmiri militants in the late 1980s with the aim of securing independence for the disputed region. It is headquartered in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

India claims Hizb militants, who have been carrying out attacks on Indian security forces and government installations in India-administered Kashmir, are supported by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

The disputed Kashmir region is divided into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.

Delhi police gave no details of the strike plans of the alleged terrorists arrested Thursday.

The arrests came a day after India's federal Home Ministry said intelligence sources indicated the Pakistan-based militant Lashkar-e-Taiba group was planning terrorist strikes in the cities of New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad ahead of Independence Day which falls on August 15.

The Home Ministry has asked the state governments where the three cities are located to put their security apparatus on a state of high alert, PTI news agency reported.

Security arrangements at the Red Fort in New Delhi, where Prime minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to unfurl the Indian flag and deliver his Independence Day speech, were being constantly reviewed, the police said. (dpa)