The Indian Army opened fire on a group of protesters Friday, killing one youth and injuring another in India-held Kashmir, police said.

The demonstrators had gathered in the town of Beerwah after senior separatist leaders called for a strike against the Indian rule in Kashmir.

Soldiers opened fire after mistaking a firecracker for a grenade explosion, police claimed. A statement, issued by police claimed that someone among the protesters hurled a firecracker towards the army men. The army personnel mistook the cracker as a grenade and they opened fire, it added.

Indian authorities have imposed a curfew in parts of the main city Srinagar where separatists had called for a march to the office of a UN military observer group to protest against recent civilian killings and arrest of dozens of political activists.

For decades separatist groups have fought roughly 500,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the territory, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousand, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting which had subsided in recent years but armed encounters between separatist and Indian forces have become more frequent since security forces killed a popular commander in July last year.