Srinagar, India - Hundreds of thousands of protestors gathered at a sports ground in Jammu and Kashmir state capital Srinagar on Monday as separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders prepared to march to a United Nations' observers office with a memorandum demanding international intervention to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Hundreds of security personnel stood by under strict instructions to use maximum restraint and minimum force and not to use bullets to disperse protesters.

At least 23 people died in the Kashmir valley last week in police firings to disperse protestors whose agitation sparked by a land row has taken an anti-India turn.

The separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders planned to submit a memorandum to UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) demanding international intervention for a permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue and end of "human rights" violations by Indian security forces.

The UNMOGIP monitors a 1949 ceasefire line that divides the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.

The Hurriyat is divided into two factions - one moderate led by Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq, and the other hardline led by the pro-Pakistan Geelani. The two factions planned to present separate memorandums to the UN observers.

Slogans against the government and security forces and shouts of "azadi" - freedom - were heard as the small groups of marchers proceeded towards the UN office. Pro-Pakistan slogans were also heard.

The local administration had initially asked the separatist leaders to cancel their march, fearing violence, but when they refused they asked them to keep the protests small.

Protestors have been attacking paramilitary personnel and their posts over the past week, reports said.

The current protests, which have seen the most widespread anti-India demonstrations in the Kashmir valley since the 1990s, were sparked by a row over land for a Hindu cave shrine.

The Jammu and Kashmir state government, which administers the Kashmir region controlled by India, had allotted some state-owned forest land to the shrine but cancelled the order after protests by Kashmiri Muslims.

The shrine is located in the Muslim-majority upper part of the state, usually referred to as the Kashmir valley.

The cancellation of the land allotment led to violent protests by Hindu groups in the lower Jammu region. These protestors blockaded the main highway that connects the Kashmir valley with the rest of India for days, disrupting flow of essential items, including medicine, and the fruit harvest of the valley.

Violent protests led by the Hurriyat Conference and fruit-growers associations against the blockade, which has since been cleared, followed. The protests included an attempt to march across the ceasefire line into Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Meanwhile, in Jammu, the Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti which is demanding land be given to the shrine, has called for an agitation to fill jails. The organization leaders said thousands would court arrest on Monday. (dpa)