Thousands of protesters clashed with police in Indian Kashmir’s main city Saturday over allegations that government forces set fire to a local Muslim shrine, officials said.

Residents allege that the popular Srinagar shrine, Jenab Sahib, was set on fire by police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force.

“There was a loud sound that was followed by a fire in the shrine,” said Sabzar Ahmed, a local resident.

As the news spread, thousands of people took to streets to protest, chanting anti-India slogans and demanding Kashmir’s freedom from Indian rule.

The protesters attacked a nearby police station, pelting it with stones, said Prabhakar Tripathi, a spokesman for the Central Reserve Police. Police fired tear gas shells and swung batons to disperse the protesters, he said, adding that at least three paramilitary soldiers were injured.

He denied authorities were involved in damaging the shrine.

“These are baseless allegations leveled to foment trouble,” Tripathi said. “In fact, we brought the fire engines to extinguish the fire.”

He said the shrine was only partially damaged and all its holy relics were safe.

Shiv Murari Sahai, Kashmir’s police chief, said authorities were investigating the fire, but that it seemed accidental.

The predominantly Muslim Kashmir region, divided between India and Pakistan but claimed by both, recently experienced some of the largest anti-India demonstrations in nearly two decades.

The protests began three weeks ago in Indian-controlled Kashmir when the state government transferred 99 acres of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, a trust running a Hindu shrine.

Kashmiris denounced the land transfer as an attempt to build Hindu settlements in the area and alter the demographics in India’s only Muslim-majority state. The state government revoked the order, triggering protests this time in Jammu, a Hindu-majority city in the Muslim-majority region.

Shops and businesses remained closed Saturday in Srinagar and public transport stayed off the roads because of a strike called by separatists alleging that a senior leader was injured by police.

Shabir Ahmed Shah, a leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Indian Kashmir’s main separatist alliance, was injured Friday while leading a rally in Srinagar. Police said he was hit by stone-pelting protesters, while separatists said he was attacked by security forces with batons.

Separatists called the rally to celebrate the revocation of the land transfer order.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Kashmir, where rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have died in the rebellion.