Fruit growers have sparked violent clashes in the Kashmir valley, vowing to take their produce across the Line of Control (LoC), which divides the Indian and Pakistani-controlled portions of the disputed territory.

At least two people have reportedly been killed and dozens more injured, after police in Indian-administered Kashmir fired shots to disperse thousands of Muslims marching towards the Line of Control dividing the disputed region.

The protesters were supporting the stance of the fruit growers, as clashes erupted in Srinagar and the nearby town of Sopore.

Muslims and Hindus in the area are at loggerheads in a row over land. The only surface link between the region and the rest of India is through the Hindu-dominated Jammu area in the south of the state, which both India and Pakistan claim.

Hindus in Jammu have blocked roads for weeks, and fruit growers have complain their produce is rotting. Thousands of growers were involved in protest marches, and as a result, all routes leading to the fruit market in Srinagar have been sealed, as have most fruit markets and warehouses, and police have deflated tyres of lorries loaded with fruit.

One fruit merchant, Farooq Ahmed, told the BBC that the police had taken away about 30 lorries laden with fruit during the night.

India's home minister Shiv Raj Patil has appealed to the fruit growers to call off their march, and offered to buy all the fruit from the growers and also to pay compensation to those whose fruit has perished.

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