Key separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest to stop him from leading a protest march later Monday in Srinagar, the main town in Indian Kashmir, said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Kashmiri leaders are often barred from leaving their homes to join street protests.

Public transportation stayed off the roads after the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella of political and religious groups, called the strike to protest Indian rule.

Some private vehicles, however, were seen on the streets.

A rigid curfew was imposed Wednesday after street protests and clashes surged in the Himalayan region, and at least 15 people died over the past four weeks in shootings blamed on police and paramilitary soldiers.

Curfew-like restrictions continued in Srinagar and two southern towns following weekend clashes, but the curfew was lifted from the rest of the Kashmir Valley on Sunday.

Thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers carrying assault rifles laid razor wires and set up barricades as they patrolled Srinagar's densely populated downtown ahead of the planned protest march on Monday.

However, nearly 60 newspapers hit the stands in Srinagar on Monday after they could not publish for four days because of police restrictions on the movement of journalists.

"Government is trying to obfuscate the voice of people through brute force. This is a dangerous trend and can lead to cycles of violence," said Farooq in a telephone interview from his home.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir where separatist politicians and armed militants reject Indian sovereignty and want to carve out a separate homeland or merge the region with Pakistan.

The current tension is reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against Indian rule sparked an armed conflict that has so far killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.