SRINAGAR (India) - INDIAN authorities on Sunday deployed thousands of police and detained a top separatist in Kashmir to prevent fresh protests over the alleged rape and murder of two Muslim women, police said.

The deaths of a 17-year-old girl and her 22-year-old sister-in-law in the disputed Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley have sparked widespread anti-India protests since their bodies were found in a stream on May 30.

Indian police initially insisted they had drowned, despite allegations from family members that they were abducted, raped and murdered by members of the security forces deployed in the revolt-hit region. Forensic tests later revealed they had been raped, and police registered a murder case.

Thousands of police and paramilitary forces on Sunday enforced strict restrictions in Shopian, the hometown of the two women, to prevent people from assembling and holding protests, a police officer said.

The town, situated 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the summer capital Srinagar, has remained shut since the bodies were recovered with schools, shops and offices closed.

There have been huge anti-India protests in Shopian and adjoining villages almost daily since the crime was reported. Residents said they were being confined to their homes by the security forces, even though there was no formal curfew in force.

'They (security forces) are not allowing us to come out of our houses,' a Shopian resident Mohammed Ramzan said over the telephone.

Separatist leaders have either been jailed or placed under house arrest after leading huge protests.

On Sunday, senior separatist Yasin Malik was released from house arrest only to be detained several hours later by police, along with two dozen of his supporters, as they headed to Shopian from Srinigar, Mr Malik's close aide Mohammed Ashraf told AFP.

Kashmir is in the grip of a 19-year insurgency against New Delhi's rule that has left more than 47,000 people dead by official count. Human rights groups put the toll at 60,000 dead and 10,000 missing. -- AFP