Wednesday August 20, 2008  12:01 pm

JAMMU, India (AP) - Police using tear gas and batons clashed with Hindu protesters defying a fresh curfew in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, injuring at least 25 people, medics and witnesses said.

Authorities reimposed a curfew in Jammu, the region's only predominantly Hindu city, and several nearby towns after several incidents of violence were reported overnight.

The clashes, which come after several days of relative calm, were small compared to the massive protests that have rocked the state over the last two months. At least 34 people have been killed in the violence.

The crisis began in June with a dispute over land near a Hindu shrine. Muslims held protests complaining that a state government plan to transfer 99 acres (40 hectares) to a Hindu trust to build facilities for pilgrims near the shrine was actually a settlement plan meant to alter the religious balance in the region.

A subsequent decision by the state government to scrap the plan angered the region's Hindus, sparking tit-for-tat demonstrations.

On Wednesday, several hundred Hindu protesters took to the streets in Akhnoor, some 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Jammu, demanding that the land transfer go ahead.

The protesters set a police vehicle on fire and police used tear gas and batons to disperse them.

``The baton charges and firing smoke shells won't stop us getting back the land,'' said Kishore Kumar, one of the protesters.

Hospital officials said at least 25 people, including some police officers, were being treated after the clashes.

Two people were in serious condition, said Romesh Kumar Gupta, the head of the local hospital.

Police officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The streets were calm Wednesday in Srinagar, a predominantly Muslim city in the region that has seen some of the largest protests in recent weeks. Separatist leaders have called for a break in the protests until Friday.

The recent unrest has reinvigorated the region's decades-long separatist struggle. The protests represent the biggest challenge to Indian rule over its only Muslim-majority state since the start of a violent insurgency in 1989 that has killed an estimated 68,000 people.

Also in Jammu on Wednesday, several thousand people, including many children, defied a ban on public gatherings and assembled in large groups. Many marched to police stations, but police took no action.

Wednesday was the third day of a planned three-day Hindu campaign to demand the land be transferred the shrine.

Organizers had said they wanted 100,000 people to take part and try to court arrest - a tactic pioneered by Indian independence leader and pacifist Mohandas K. Gandhi.