Alwaght- Kashmiris responded to calls by a separatist group to boycott India Republic Day which was marked in the disputed territory amid a security lockdown and internet outage.
The 69th India Republic Day was held amid tight security at a sports stadium in the region's main city, Srinagar, and was attended by politicians and top officers of the security apparatus with residents boycotting the ceremony.
The day is meant to remember when the Constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950.
Separatist leader Sayyed Ali Shah Geelani said: "India has no right to celebrate Republic Day as it has occupied Jammu Kashmir with its military might."
Geelani leads the All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an amalgam of separatist leaderships in Kashmir. Separatists fight for independence or merging the region with Pakistan.
APHC said the day should be observed as a "black day" and called for a boycott of all celebrations.
"India claims to be world's largest democracy but virtually stands exposed in Jammu Kashmir as it is trampling all basic and fundamental rights of people since past seven decades," an APHC statement said.
The Indian flag was hoisted during the ceremony in the divided territory.
Authorities blocked internet and phone networks until Friday afternoon, as they do for Indian Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations as well.
Tensions have increased over the last few days between Indian and Pakistan after armies of the two nuclear-armed states exchanged fire and shelling several times along the Line of Control (LoC) dividing the disputed Kashmir region.
LoC is a de facto border that divides Kashmir into India and Pakistan-controlled parts.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided since the partition of British colonial India into the dominion states of India and Pakistan in 1947. China also holds a small parcel of Kashmir's land.
The conflict in Indian-controlled Kashmir is basically a struggle for self-determination with residents of the region demanding a plebiscite while India rejects the call.
