Most shops and businesses in the main city of divided Kashmir were closed today after separatists called a strike to protest against a visit by the Indian Prime Minister.
Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee is due to attend a meeting of an inter-state Indian council, being held in Srinagar to underline the region's gradual return to normalcy after India and Pakistan almost went to war over it last year.
Kashmir's main separatist alliance, the All Parties Freedom Conference, and the militant Hizbul Mujahideen were among groups that called for a strike across the Muslim-majority region where more than 38,000 people have died in a revolt that erupted in 1989.
"The visit is to hoodwink the international community that Kashmir is normal," separatist leader Mr Syed Ali Shah Geelani said in a statement.
Indian and Pakistani arguments over Kashmir have led to two of the nuclear neighbours three wars since they won independence from Britain in 1947.
Separatist attacks surged last year as India and Pakistan faced off last year over Kashmir. The violence drove tourists away from the picturesque mountain state. The separatists are seeking implementation of a 1948 UN resolution for a plebiscite to decide whether Kashmir should belong to India or Pakistan.
Indian forces have stepped up patrols and sealed off the routes to the conference centre on the banks of the Dal Lake where Vajpayee, his deputy Lal Krishna Advani and several Indian state chief ministers will discuss centre-state relations for two days.
Tension has risen between India and Pakistan since two car bombs exploded in India's financial capital Bombay on Monday killing 51 people. Indian police blame Islamic separatists for the bombings.
The attacks prompted the hardline Mr Advani to revive charges that Islamabad was not doing enough to curb Muslim militants in Kashmir and elsewhere in India. Pakistan rejected Mr Advani's accusation and said it had nothing to do with the bombings in Bombay.