SRINAGAR, India — An annual strike called by separatists in Indian-controlled Kashmir shuttered shops and businesses Monday to mark a top Muslim cleric's assassination 22 years ago.
The cleric, Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq, had argued for Kashmir's right to vote on whether it should be independent or governed either by India or Pakistan, nuclear-armed nations that have fought two wars since 1947 over rival claims to the Himalayan territory now split between them by a militarized line of control.
Separatists, protesting against Indian rule over eastern Kashmir, were also on Monday honoring separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone, who was gunned down on the anniversary in 2002.
Officials restricted people's movement within the main city of Srinagar in hopes of preventing a separatist rally and imposed house arrest on a handful of separatists including Farooq's son, chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who leads the separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
Armed police and paramilitary patrolled, public transportation was canceled, but some private cars were on the streets.
The extra security measures have become common in Kashmir since 1989, when a violent separatist insurgency and ensuing crackdown by Indian forces left an estimated 68,000 people dead in the region. While the armed rebellion was largely suppressed, the region remains heavily militarized amid frequent street protests, with checkpoints along main roads, hundreds of thousands of deployed troops and harsh emergency laws creating more friction with the restive population.
Police said a suspected rebel of the region's largest militant group, Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen, was killed Monday in a gunbattle with Indian troops in the town of Kishtwar, about 105 miles (170 kilometers) southeast of Srinagar. There was no way of independently verifying the police report, and the rebel group could not immediately be reached for comment and did not issue a statement.