SRINAGAR, India – Authorities imposed a curfew in some parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Monday amid a general strike called by separatist groups to protest the killing of a teenage boy and a young woman during a protest against Indian rule.

As a result of the strike and curfew, shops, businesses and some government offices were closed and public transport stayed off the roads in the disputed Himalayan region. Train services were suspended and university examinations were postponed.

Hundreds of troops patrolled the old part of Srinagar, the region’s main city, and some other towns, warning residents to stay indoors.

The two students were killed Sunday during an anti-India protest that followed the killing of a local rebel in a gunbattle with government forces in southern Kakpora village.

Police and paramilitary soldiers on Monday laid razor wire and erected additional road checkpoints in the region in anticipation of protests.

Still clashes erupted in Kakpora and at least three Srinagar neighbourhoods as protesters threw rocks at police and paramilitary soldiers, who responded by firing tear gas shells, police said. At least three protesters were injured.

Protests by stone-throwing youths and clashes with government forces have become routine in Kashmir, where anti-India sentiment runs deep among the mostly Muslim population.

Rebel groups have fought since 1989 for either independence or a merger with neighbouring Pakistan. India and Pakistan each administer a portion of Kashmir. Both claim the region in its entirety.

Since 1989, an armed uprising and an ensuing Indian crackdown in the region have killed an estimated 68,000 people.