Shops, businesses and schools closed in much of Kashmir on Friday due to a strike by Muslims to press for the implementation of a U.N. resolution requesting a referendum over the disputed region.

The past two months have witnessed some of the biggest anti-India protests in Kashmir since a separatist revolt against New Delhi's rule broke out nearly 20 years ago.

The strike also closed banks and most of the government offices in major towns in the Kashmir valley, where roads were deserted except for security patrols.

Police in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, used tear gas and batons to quell scores of stone-throwing protesters shouting "We want freedom."

The strike coincided with United Nations Day. In 1948, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a referendum for Kashmir to determine whether the Himalayan region should be part of India and Pakistan.

Life in Srinagar, a city of 1.1 million people, is frequently disrupted by strikes and protests over Muslim causes.

"We will never bow to the suppression and occupation of Indian rule, and I think today we should protest and remind the United Nations of its promise," said Abdul Hamid, a shopkeeper in Srinagar.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the main Muslim alliance, All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, was placed under house arrest to stop him leading a protest, police said.

On Thursday a senior Muslim leader, Yasin Malik, was arrested and sent to jail for leading a rally urging people to boycott forthcoming state elections.

There had been pressure to suspend the state elections, due to start on Nov. 17, after at least 42 people were killed by security forces and more than 1,000 wounded in over two-months of anti-India protests.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have been killed since simmering discontent against Indian rule turned into a full-blown rebellion in 1989.

Reuters