SRINAGAR (Agencies) - A massive pro-independence strike brought Kashmir to a halt Saturday, a day after a huge rally in the region. The strike was the latest in a string of shutdowns and demonstrations called by the freedom movement leaders in the occupied valley. "The strike is part of continuing protests against India's rule in Kashmir," said All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who is chief priest at the city main mosque. "It is also to demand our right to self-determination through a referendum," he said in Srinagar. In Srinagar, shops, schools, banks and businesses remained closed for a second day running. There were similar shutdowns in other towns in the held valley. The strike is set to continue until Monday, when the freedom movement leaders plan to hold a protest sit-in at Lal Chowk, the heart of Srinagar. Meanwhile, the death toll from an overnight gunbattle with freedom fighters near the LoC rose to 15, the Indian army said. The fighting that is still raging has so far left 12 freedom fighters and three soldiers dead, including a colonel, Indian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Anil Kumar Mathur told AFP. Scattered demonstrations continued on Saturday across the city, with scores of protesters riding motorbikes and carrying green Islamic flags parading the eerily empty streets. On Friday, hundreds of thousands of people massed in Srinagar to demand "azadi" or freedom and to protest against New Delhi's rule in the second major demonstration this week. The trouble was triggered by Kashmir government plan announced in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the held valley. The decision was later reversed, angering Hindus. Since June, at least 31 Muslims and three Hindus have died in police firing on protesters and other violence in the occupied valley and mainly Hindu Jammu area. In Jammu, meanwhile, as state officials and Hindu groups held talks to lower tensions, fresh clashes erupted Saturday between Muslims and Hindus, forcing imposition of a curfew. "A curfew was clamped in the frontier Poonch district after fresh incidents of violence and stone hurling Saturday," an Indian police official said. The events have soured relations between Hindus and Muslims in the region and breathed new life into the freedom movement.