The row over Amarnath has snowballed into full-scale protests, uniting separatists and reviving calls for Kashmiri independence.

In Srinagar, troops patrolled streets, erected barricades and blocked roads leading to the offices of UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

Marches last week led to police killing at least 22 demonstrators, including a senior separatist leader, inflaming passions in one of the biggest separatist protests.

UNMOGIP, one of the oldest UN missions, monitors a 1949 ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Leaders of Kashmir's main separatist All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference alliance said they would submit a memorandum to the UN office on Monday.

"Call upon India to end its forcible occupation of Jammu and Kashmir and desist from use of brute force against the people of Jammu and Kashmir," the memorandum, published in local newspapers, stated.

Protests have also raised tensions between India and Pakistan. New Delhi has criticised Islamabad for interfering in its internal affairs by calling for UN intervention in the region.

The crisis began after the state government promised to give forest land to a trust that runs Amarnath Shrine Board. Many Muslims were enraged.

The government then rescinded its decision, which in turn angered Hindus in Jammu who attacked lorries carrying supplies to the Kashmir valley and often blocked the region's highway, the only surface link with the rest of India.