Protesters blocked the <g data-gr-id="30">Pathankote</g>-Jammu highway in Jammu and Kashmir and clashed with the police on Friday following <g data-gr-id="29">overnight</g> communal violence, authorities said.
Curfew was imposed in Samba district in Jammu region late Thursday in the wake of communal clashes.
A senior police officer said a mob, which had blocked the national highway at Parmandal <g data-gr-id="32">Morh</g> in Jammu district, clashed with police, who were forced to use batons and tear gas to clear the highway.
The protests on Friday were linked to the Samba violence that followed allegations and counter allegations of religious sacrilege.
Authorities on Friday said no cow had been slaughtered in Samba district – a charge that led to tensions and then violence at the first place.
They said the carcass of the animal found on the street was that of a buffalo calf that had died more than 100 hours earlier as revealed by autopsy.
Members of one community had alleged that copies of their religious scripture were torched inside a factory in the Bari Brahmana industrial area.
The first communal outbreak was reported on Thursday evening at Raya <g data-gr-id="26">Morh</g> in Samba where protesters torched the vehicle of the district magistrate and smashed other vehicles on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.Several policemen and protesters were injured in the clashes. The Army was called out at night, district officials said. Police and the civil administration said they were seeking the help of community elders to restore sanity.
Separatist leader Shabir Shah under house arrest
Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah was put under house arrest again ahead of Friday prayers. A police party visited the Sanat Nagar residence of Shah, chairman of Democratic Freedom Party, in the morning and asked him to stay indoors, officials said.