Srinagar, July 3: Protesters stoned a government office, torched vehicles and clashed with police as violence over the Amarnath land row spread to more areas of Hindu-majority Jammu amid a call to shut down the region for three more days.

The Amarnath Yatra Sangrashi Samiti, an umbrella body of 31 religious, social and political organisations spearheading the campaign against the decision to revoke transfer of forest land to the cave shrine’s board, said it was extending its strike.

“All the members of the Samiti have unanimously decided to extend the bandh for the next three days from tomorrow,” convener Leela Karan Sharma said in Jammu.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ashok Khajuria said today’s bandh in Jammu was total. “People have responded to our call and observed a complete bandh,” he said.

Dozens of protesters and policemen were injured as agitators defied curfew orders and hit the streets in Jammu city and its outskirts against the government’s decision to scrap the land transfer.

In Kathua district, a mob stoned the sales tax office at Lakhanpur, the entry point to the state, and tried to set it on fire. A commercial tax toll post was also damaged. The mob targeted several houses of Muslim Gujjars.

Police fired smoke shells and cane-charged the protesters, injuring several people.

Jammu divisional commissioner Sadhanshu Panday said the administration had to rush additional forces to the troubled areas. “Some people tried to set ablaze some houses and damage government property,” he said.

Curfew clamped in Jammu city, Samba and Bhaderwah remained in force today, too.