Two persons were injured in paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force firing on a mob in Srinagar on Monday evening.
Police said unruly protestors started heavy stone pelting on police and paramilitary forces and tried to torch a CRPF vehicle during protests against the allotment of forest land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board.
"CRPF troops fired at the protestors, resulting in critical injuries to two persons who were taken to Soura medical institute for treatment," a senior police officer told this correspondent.
Attending doctors described the condition of one of the injured identified as Feroze Ahmad as critical.
"He has received a critical bullet injury in the abdomen and is being operated upon by a team of doctors," the officer said.
The protests erupted in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar on Monday when stone-throwing youths gathered and shouted slogans against the land allotment to SASB.
Earlier in the day, senior hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani led protests at Gawkadal in Sringar.
All other senior separatist leaders belonging to the two factions of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference had been put under house arrest to prevent their participation in Monday's protests.
Meanwhile Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik on Monday threatened a fast unto death if the order allotting land to SASB was not immediately rescinded.