Troops in Kashmir's main city sealed off residential areas with razor wire and barricades, imposing what amounted to an undeclared curfew to thwart a separatist rally on Thursday, police and witnesses said. Thousands of police and soldiers in riot gear patrolled deserted streets in Srinagar, Muslim-majority Kashmir's summer capital, and warned residents to stay indoors. The disputed Himalayan region in recent months has seen some of the biggest pro-independence protests since a separatist revolt against Indian rule erupted in 1989. At least 42 people were killed by security forces and more than 1,000 wounded in the most recent protests. Separatists had planned a huge anti-India rally in the 500-year-old Jamia Masjid, or Grand Mosque, on Thursday in honour of “martyrs” and to announce plans to boycott local elections beginning Nov. 17. B. Srinivas, a senior police officer, said the government had banned any public assembly of more than five people but that no curfew had been imposed. Troops erected steel barricades and laid razor wire on roads to prevent a public gathering. “We're imposing restrictions to avoid clashes,” he said. Police and paramilitary soldiers drove through neighborhoods in the old parts of Srinagar warning people to stay indoors, said Bashir Ahmed, an area resident. He said some police called it a curfew. “They are not allowing any movement,” Ahmed said. “Let us remember the martyrs and continue peaceful protests against Indian occupation," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the region's main separatist alliance, the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference. “The election is no substitute for a Kashmir solution, it is a futile exercise," he said. Farooq, who was scheduled to lead the rally, has been under house arrest since Wednesday. Security forces have intensified a crackdown on separatists who want to boycott the Kashmir elections. “Senior leaders have been detained under draconian laws and hundreds of our senior activists have been arrested," a Hurriyat statement said. Senior separatist leaders were sent to jail last week under a tough security law that allows detention for up to two years without trial. Shops, businesses and schools remained closed across the disputed Kashmir valley on Thursday as part of the protests. The protests, which have become an embarrassment for New Delhi, come at a time when violence between Indian troops and separatist militants has declined significantly after mainly Hindu India and Pakistan, which both claim the region in full and rule in part, began a slow-moving peace process in 2004.
