Srinagar, Aug 24 (IANS): Protests broke out in Handwara town in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday following accusations that security forces had killed a youth in cold blood.

Officials failed to persuade the protesters to perform the last rites of Shahid Ahmad Mir, who was killed on Tuesday in the Hafrada forested area during a cordon and search operation.

The security forces had claimed that Mir was a terrorist but the protesters said he was innocent and that he was killed in a stage-managed "encounter".

The demonstrators sat in the market square of Handwara town with Mir's body.

Markets and educational institutions remained closed in the town in protest against the killing.

The protesters said they would not budge unless an FIR was registered against the security forces involved in the killing.

Kupwara District Magistrate Khalid Jehangir told some reporters that an FIR would be registered in this case once the identity of the troops involved in the killing was known.