SRINAGAR: Police and paramilitary forces on Monday reimposed a curfew in Srinagar, the main town in the disputed region of Indian Kashmir, after the overnight death of a protester.

Shops and businesses had opened on Sunday for the first time in two weeks after the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley was brought to a standstill by violent protests and the deaths of scores of civilians.

The territory has been rocked by unrest since a teenage student was killed by a police tear-gas shell on June 11.

About 50 people have been killed as the security forces regularly opened fire to control the angry separatist demonstrations triggered by each fatality.

Some 33 people -- many of them young men or teenagers -- have died in the last ten days, the deadliest phase of violence for two years.

Muslim separatists have fought a 20-year insurgency in Indian Kashmir against rule from New Delhi.

"We had to reimpose the curfew to prevent protests after the death of a protester," a police officer said, asking not to be named.

He said the victim, a Srinagar resident, was injured last week during clashes and died in a hospital late Sunday.

The mountainous region is held in part by Pakistan and India, but claimed in full by both, and has been the cause of two of the three wars the countries have fought since independence from Britain more than half a century ago.

BDST: 1358 HRS, August 09, 2010