SRINAGAR, Kashmir — The death toll from violence in Indian-controlled Kashmir climbed to 19 on Tuesday, as security forces fired on protesters defying a curfew and were themselves pelted with stones. Nearly 300 security officers have been injured, the police said, since clashes broke out Monday.

Six protesters died Monday when the police opened fire in an attempt to stop thousands of protesters from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley from approaching the disputed border with Pakistan, the Kashmir state government said. The protesters were seeking an alternate route out of the valley, to break a blockade of the main highway south.

The dead on Monday included Sheik Abdul Aziz, a former anti-Indian militant who joined the moderate faction of the Kashmiri separatist group called the Hurriyat Conference. The government imposed a curfew on Srinagar, the valley’s principal city, and several other cities and towns. Protesters filled the streets in defiance and 13 were killed Tuesday in confrontations with security forces, according to the state police chief, Kuldeep Khuda.

Meanwhile, the governor of Jammu and Kashmir State, Narendra Nath Vohra, tried to calm tempers. He said that the highway from the valley into the plains of northern India had been opened to traffic, and that the police would ensure safe passage of goods. In a statement, he acknowledged “sporadic attempts” to block the highway. He appealed for an end to the violent demonstrations.

The protests erupted after apple farmers complained that their apples were rotting because they could not haul their crop to markets in the plains. The governor’s statement said that over the past four days, 1,100 trucks had traveled the highway into the valley, including hundreds carrying fuel and food, and that nearly 2,000 trucks had left, many loaded with fruit.

Tens of thousands of people attended Mr. Aziz’s funeral on Tuesday in Srinagar. Police vans and police stations were burned during the day, as well as the homes of some police officers and politicians.

The governor’s envoys continued to negotiate with protesters in the Hindu-majority region of Jammu, in the plains. The Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad urged supporters to block roads on Wednesday during the morning rush hour.

Tensions have risen since late May, when the government turned over 98 acres of land to a panel that administers Amarnath, a Hindu shrine in the Himalayas. Protests by Muslims faded after the land transfer was rescinded, but then Hindus in the plains of Jammu demonstrated in force. Led by Hindu nationalists, they disrupted the movement of trucks in and out of the Kashmir Valley.

The latest troubles in Kashmir, which India and Pakistan each claim, have soured relations between the nations after a period of relative amity. On Tuesday, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, condemned what he described as “excessive and unwarranted use of force” in Indian-administered Kashmir, according to news agency reports from Pakistan. The Indian Foreign Ministry accused Pakistan of unnecessary interference.

Yusuf Jameel reported from Srinagar, and Somini Sengupta from New Delhi.

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company