Authorities imposed a curfew in parts of the main city of Indian-held Kashmir on Friday to prevent any move by Kashmiris to celebrate Pakistan's Independence Day, police said. The restrictions in occupied Srinagar, which included the closure of the city's main mosque during Friday prayers, were announced on the eve of independence day in both India and Pakistan and follow a recent spike in violence.
"The restrictions are imposed to prevent miscreants from hoisting Pakistani flags and to avoid loss of life," director general of police, K. Rajendra, told AFP. Forces from both sides of the Line of Control, exchanged heavy fire and mortar shells in the southern Poonch sector early Friday, according to Indian defence ministry spokesman Manish Mehta. Additional checkpoints and razor wire barricades have been erected along major arterial roads in Indian-controlled Kashmir to thwart militant attacks amid the deployment of thousands of troop reinforcements. On Thursday a bomb kept in a steel pot exploded in the compound of a mosque.