Newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first official trip to Jammu and Kashmir state yesterday, sparking a strike by separatist groups.

Shops, businesses and schools were shut in response to the call by activists in the Muslim-majority state.

Mr Modi inaugurated a new railway line and planned to review security and development in the region.

The leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has long had an uneasy relationship with Muslims in India. He was chief minister in Gujarat state in 2002 when communal riots killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.

Police declared a curfew in the old quarters of the main city Srinagar and residents had been told to stay indoors.

The restrictions were imposed to prevent any violent protests by separatist groups and most separatist leaders were either put under house arrest or detained, police said.

Authorities did not allow worshippers to pray at Jamia Masjid, the main mosque in Srinagar, on the first Friday of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.

Friday prayers were offered in small mosques however.

Police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled the mostly deserted streets and set up additional checkpoints in the already heavily guarded city.

The PM travelled first to Katra, 170 miles south of Srinagar, to inaugurate a railway line linking a Hindu shrine with India’s vast railway network.

“This facility is not just meant for the people of the state but for the millions of Indians who want to travel” to the shrine, he said.