Srinagar, Kashmir - Army troops marched through the streets in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state on Saturday after violent protests over land for a Hindu pilgrimage site claimed two lives and wounded 21 people, officials said.

The army was deployed in the southern Jammu district after Hindu protestors attacked government offices and torched a police station on Friday. Two protestors were killed in police shooting and 8 injured as the protests spread to Samba town, police said.

Jammu, a Hindu majority region in the mostly Muslim state has been on the boil since the state government cancelled its earlier order allotting 40 hectares of forest land to a trust that organizes the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave.

"13 more people were injured in overnight clashes with the army and police. Hundreds are out on the streets in defiance of the curfew," a police official said requesting anonymity.

Police had to resort to caning and firing tear-gas to disperse angry mobs in some areas as protest rallies were still being taken out.

"Additional forces have taken positions in sensitive areas to prevent further clashes. The situation is tense but under control," he said.

Protests over over the land row escalated last week after a local committed suicide, saying he was "sacrificing his life for the cause."

The unrest against the government's transfer of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust that organizes the Amarnath pilgrimage, began in June in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley.

Muslim separatist leaders, who initially called for the protests, said the decision was part of a conspiracy to settle non-Muslims in the region with the aim of altering the demographic character of the state.

The violence claimed five lives and injured over 500 people before the order was revoked on July 1, drawing the ire of Hindus.

The Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti, a body set up by the Hindu groups which is spearheading the agitation in Jammu, has threatened to intensify the protests after their talks with state Governor NN Vohra failed.

In addition to Jammu, the epicentre of the protests, other Indian cities and towns have also witnessed violent Hindu protests during July.

Kashmir, a picturesque region, has been hit by protracted violence and bloodshed since a separatist revolt peaked in the late 1980s.

According to government data, more than 40,000 people - civilians, militants and security forces - have been killed in Indian- administered Kashmir since the 1990s. (dpa)