Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir Saturday morning imposed an indefinite curfew in Muslim majority areas of the region, police said.

The step has been taken following the hanging of Indian parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru in New Delhi for fear that the execution could trigger protests and clashes.

"The curfew has been imposed in the wake of Afzal Guru's hanging," said a senior police officer pleading not to be named.

Hundreds of policemen and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force personnel in full riot gear were deployed in Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir and other major towns to stop protest demonstration against the hanging of Guru.

They were seen closing roads and intersections to restrict movement of people and vehicles while police vehicles fitted with loud speakers were seen announcing the imposition of curfew in Srinagar city and other towns, residents said.

Guru was hanged at the high profile Tihar jail in the national capital barely a fortnight after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his clemency plea on the advise of the Home Ministry, sources said.

Guru, a Kashmiri resident, was convicted by Indian authorities for his role in the December 2001 attack on India's Parliament house, which killed several Indian security personnel and five attackers.

He was sentenced to death in 2004 by the country's Supreme Court. The sentence was supposed to have been carried out on Oct. 20, 2006. However, the sentence was stayed after Guru's wife filed a mercy petition.

Guru's execution came less than three months after India had hanged till death Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only Pakistani militant caught alive in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which claimed the lives of over 170 people.

This is the third execution since 1995, the first being a man in the eastern city of Kolkata in 2004 for raping and killing a school girl.