SRINAGAR, Oct 5: Indian authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in Kashmir on Sunday ahead of a pro-independence rally by freedom fighters, the latest in a string of anti-India protests in the disputed Himalayan region.

Police using loudspeakers mounted on vehicles told people to remain indoors as thousands of police and soldiers patrolled the region’s empty streets to enforce the curfew.

Over the past two months Kashmir has seen some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations since an uprising against New Delhi’s rule broke out in the region in 1989.

About 40 protesters have been killed by security forces and more than 1,000 injured.

The Jammu-Kashmir Coordination Committee, a new alliance of Muslim freedom fighters and representatives of businesses and lawyers, plans a huge rally on Monday in Lal Chowk (Red Square) in the heart of Srinagar.

“Please cooperate with authorities,” Kashmir’s senior official, Anil Goswami, appealed to Kashmiris on state-owned Doordarshan television. “If you violate curfew security forces will respond.”

The government has announced a ban on public meetings of five or more people for one month to thwart any protest rally.

But Kashmiri leaders said they would defy ban and go ahead with a rally on Monday.

“Lal Chowk rally should be symbolic and every individual should try to join to convey to the world Kashmiris’ resolve for the right to self-determination,” Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a leader of a faction of the APHC, said in a statement.

Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary soldiers dressed in battle gear have been deployed around the Lal Chowk, with all entry points blocked by barbed wire to prevent the entry of Kashmiri protesters.

Police said they had detained Yasin Malik, another senior leader fighting for independence of Kashmir.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of region’s main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, was also placed under house arrest, police said.

The recent protests were sparked by a decision to grant land for shelters for Hindu pilgrims travelling to mostly-Muslim Kashmir, one of the world’s most-militarised zones.

Violence involving Indian troops and Kashmiris has declined significantly since India and Pakistan, which both claim the region, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004.

But people are still killed in shootouts and occasional explosions.

Earlier on Saturday night security forces claimed to have shot dead a senior member of Lashkar-i-Taiba in south Kashmir for alleged attacks in Kashmir and elsewhere in the country.

Police said Abu Uabiad, was one of the most wanted top commanders of Lashkar-i-Taiba.—Reuters