Shops and businesses closed in the winter capital of India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir state today in a strike called by Hindu nationalists to protest against the slaying of 27 slum dwellers by unidentified gunmen.
But police said the shutdown in the mainly Hindu southern portion of the Muslim majority state, called by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), would likely end by afternoon.
"Most of the businesses and stores in the city are closed now but people are getting used to these incidents. They can't stop their lives," police official Vijay Kumar said. "I think by midday or afternoon most will reopen."
Police were out in force on the streets to prevent trouble after the Saturday raid on Hindus in a slum that stoked tensions between nuclear armed India and Pakistan, locked in a military standoff over disputed Kashmir.
Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani had said he would outline the government's response to the attack in parliament today, but both houses adjourned until tomorrow without Mr Advani appearing.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the assault and New Delhi has so far declined to assign blame.