Authorities in Indian Kashmir deployed thousands of police and troops Monday to prevent a protest outside a UN office over the recent killing of two teenage boys allegedly by the security forces.

Barbed wire barriers were erected to seal off the area around the small UN office, which houses staff monitoring ceasefire violations along the Line of Control dividing Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.

The office is located in the centre of the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar, which was under a general lockdown Monday to prevent any demonstrations by separatist groups.
 

"No procession or gathering would be allowed in any part of the city,” Srinagar’s district magistrate Meraj Kakroo said, adding that an order had been issued banning any assembly of more than four people in Srinagar.
 

Moderate separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the protesters had planned to petition the United Nations to intervene after the deaths of the two teenagers.
 

Farooq and his close aides have been under house arrest for the past five days, while other separatists have been jailed.
 

The region has been in turmoil since 14 year old Wamiq Farooq was killed a week ago by a police tear gas shell.
 

The anger was fuelled by the death on Friday of 17 year old Zahid Farooq, who witnesses said was killed by the security forces after refusing to leave a high-security area.
 

Srinagar has now been under an unofficial curfew for the past six days, and residents have complained of depleting food stocks and medicines.
 

A two decade insurgency by militants who oppose New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir has claimed more than 47,000 lives, according to an official count. Human rights groups say the toll is twice as high.
 

Source: AFP