Authorities imposed a curfew in many parts of Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, a day ahead of the first anniversary of India's controversial decision to revoke the disputed region's semi-autonomy.
Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, a civil administrator, said the security lockdown was clamped in the region's main city of Srinagar in view of information about protests planned by anti-India groups to mark August 5 as "black day," reports Al Jazeera.
Police and paramilitary soldiers drove through neighbourhoods and went to people's homes warning them to stay indoors. Government forces erected steel barricades and laid razor wire across roads, bridges and intersections.
The curfew will be enforced on Tuesday and Wednesday, Choudhary said in a government order.
"A series of inputs have been received suggesting that separatist and Pakistan-sponsored groups are planning to observe August 5 as Black Day and violent action or protests are not ruled out," he said.
The curfew is similar to the one introduced just before Kashmir's semi-autonomy was stripped on August 5 last year.
A total communications blackout was imposed, with phone and internet lines cut and tens of thousands of fresh troops moved into the valley in one of the world's most militarised regions.
"Police went around in jeeps ordering everyone not to leave their homes just like this time last year," a resident in the southern Kashmir valley region of Kulgam, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP news agency.