Srinagar, India - An indefinite curfew was clamped across India-administered Kashmir on Sunday, one day ahead of a planned protest march called by separatist leaders. Yasin Malik, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, one of the main organizers of the march, was detained while other leaders have been put under house arrest.
The historic Lal Chowk in the heart of Jammu and Kashmir state capital Srinagar, where the marchers were to gather on Monday, has been barricaded with tin sheets and barbed wire.
All roads and lanes leading to the city centre were sealed.
Local television channels were broadcasting only films and music programmes. They had been asked to refrain from airing any news, editors at the channels said.
Large numbers of security personnel were manning the streets and media personnel were not being allowed to move around freely.
Vehicles with loudspeakers were seen in all 10 districts of the valley since dawn announcing the curfew and asking people to stay indoors.
The measures were aimed at ensuring that there was no violence during the protest march, the police said.
There has been a month-long lull in protests in the Kashmir valley which were sparked by a temple land row but escalated into an anti-India agitation led by separatist groups.
According to reports in the local media, as many as 42 people died in violent protests in Jammu and Kashmir since June, most of them Muslims killed by police firing.
The protest organizers had called for a break during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. But after the month of fasting ended with Eid on Wednesday, the separatists gave a call for "a massive public march" to Lal Chowk on Monday.
The joint coordination committee of hardline and moderate factions of the separatist Hurriyat said in a statement that the march would be peaceful and if the authorities imposed curfew it would be defied without resorting to violence or raising provocative slogans.
The disputed Kashmir region is divided into two parts, one administered by India and the other by Pakistan.
The predominantly Muslim Kashmir valley is part of India's Jammu and Kashmir state which has two other regions - the Ladakh valley populated largely by Buddhists and the southern Jammu region which is largely populated by Hindus.
At least 40,000 people - civilians, security forces personnel and militants - have died in Jammu and Kashmir since a violent secessionist movement peaked in the late 1980s.
