A strike has today shut shops and businesses in Indian-ruled Kashmir's main city to mark the 18th anniversary of the hanging of a separatist leader in a New Delhi jail.
The disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir is at the heart of the current military stand-off between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan which have massed an estimated million soldiers at their border.
Most streets in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, were deserted except for security patrols and a small amount of traffic.
The strike was called by Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, which bands nearly two dozen social, political and religious groups.
"The Hurriyat Conference called for a general strike today to commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of the great son of soil, Maqbool Bhat," a Hurriyat statement said.
Maqbool Bhat, founder member of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was hanged in New Delhi on February 11th, 1984, on the charge of killing an Indian intelligence officer.