Police in India's north-east fired tear gas shells at protesters and detained lawmakers and students who tried to defy a curfew on Thursday in support of demands to withdraw an anti-terror law.
An indefinite curfew was imposed in Imphal, capital of the troubled state of Manipur, late on Wednesday after a 65-year-old protester died after street battles between police and thousands of demonstrators, authorities said.
"Unless the government takes a firm decision, the situation will worsen," Pradeep Phanjoubam, a local human rights activist told Reuters by telephone from Imphal.
Fresh protests erupted in the city on Thursday as a group of men attempted to enter the house of the state chief minister to hand over a petition opposing the terror law, forcing police to fire tear gas shells, a police officer said.
About 200 school students were detained at a police station after they tried to march through Imphal in defiance of the curfew, he said.
Several lawmakers who joined protesters in another part of the city, carrying banners that said: "We support the public demand", were also detained.
Heavily armed soldiers and commandos on armoured vehicles patrolled Imphal. Schools and colleges have been closed indefinitely and shops and businesses shut down.
The protests in the tiny, mountainous state began last month after soldiers shot dead a 30-year-old woman suspected of being a rebel during a raid on her home in Imphal.
Manipuris said the incident was yet another example of security forces abusing the 27-year-old Armed Forces Special Powers Act that gives them sweeping powers to search houses and shoot people suspected to be rebels.
The law is in force in India's seven north-eastern states, which are plagued by revolts by dozens of guerrilla groups, some demanding greater autonomy and others separate homelands.
More than 10,000 people have died in three decades of separatist violence in Manipur alone. New Delhi says the anti-terror law is necessary to quell insurgencies in the region.