Protesters shouted "set free the separatists" and "God is great." Some pelted stones at police, who retaliated with batons, but no injuries were reported.

There have been demonstrations for nearly two weeks against the arrest late last month of four separatists being held in Kashmir's second largest city Jammu, which serves as the winter capital.

The four were arrested for holding an unauthorised rally to welcome back Syed Ali Geelani, leader of the hardline wing of the region's separatist alliance, who had undergone cancer treatment in Mumbai.

The strike shut all educational institutions and businesses in the summer capital Srinagar.

Although Saturday is a normal working day in Muslim-majority Kashmir, traffic was light and attendance at government offices was thin.

"I urge people to observe a total shutdown to express their resentment against the arrests," said Geelani, who sponsored the call.

Police complained that "anti-national" slogans -- a euphemism used for anti-India and pro-separatist slogans -- had been chanted at the rally.

Use of such slogans is nothing new in Kashmir, where anti-India sentiments have been running high since Muslim rebels launched an insurgency against New Delhi's rule in 1989.

Geelani said the strike was also a response to damage to a 199-year-old mosque housed in a fort controlled by Indian troops.

Muslim visitors have said a Hindu and a Sikh temple inside the recently reopened fort overlooking Srinagar remained intact. But they said the mosque had been damaged and blamed paramilitary forces in charge of the fort.

Authorities denied the allegations, saying the mosque had been in a "dilapidated" state for a long time.

The Hari Parbat Fort, built in 1808 when Kashmir was under Afghan rule, was thrown open to the public last month, 17 years after the revolt forced it to close.