SRINAGAR: A one-day strike to protest the arrival of Indian troops in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1947 shut most shops and businesses in the disputed region's main city on Tuesday.

Many banks, post offices and government offices in Srinagar, the urban hub of militants and separatist politicians fighting to end India's rule in Kashmir, were also closed.

‘The strike is to protest India's occupation of Kashmir,’ separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement.

Indian troops arrived in Kashmir on October 27, 1947.

Maharaja Hari Singh initially held out for independence for Kashmir when Britain withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in August 1947.

After Indian troops restored peace in Kashmir, then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said he would agree to United Nations resolutions calling for a plebiscite on the region's status.

India now considers the resolutions obsolete and wants a bilateral agreement with Pakistan, which controls the northern part of Kashmir. Both countries claim the region in its entirety.

The dispute has caused two wars between India and Pakistan. An insurgency against New Delhi's rule that started in 1989 has claimed at least 47,000 lives.