By Mushtaq Sheikh

SRINAGAR, India, July 1 (Reuters) - India placed several top Kashmiri separatist leaders under house arrest on Tuesday as they prepared to protest against a decision to transfer forest land to a Hindu shrine trust, a move that has sparked violence.

In one of the biggest protests since a separatist revolt broke out in Kashmir in 1989, angry Muslims have shut down the region and at least four people have been shot dead by police in demonstrations that started last week.

They are protesting against the government decision to hand over nearly 100 acres (40 hectares) of forest land to a Hindu shrine trust, a move they say is aimed at changing the demography of mainly Hindu India's only Muslim-majority state.

To defuse the situation, Kashmir authorities said the state cabinet had formally revoked the decision. Protesters had said they would continue to demonstrate until they saw the order.

"As a preventive measure the leadership of Hurriyat has been placed under house arrest," Imtitaz Ahmad, a senior police officer, said, referring to an alliance of the main separatist groups.

He said hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani managed to evade police.

Those under house arrest included the chairman of Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chief Mohammad Yasin Malik and another popular separatist leader, Shabir Shah.

Thousands of police and troops patrolled the deserted streets in the strife-torn region and enforced an "undeclared curfew" to quell protests.

But the government's backing down is now making Hindus angry in Jammu, another region in Kashmir where they are in a majority, shutting down the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state for the second day.

The Hindu trust helps organise an annual trek undertaken by thousands of pilgrims to a shrine deep inside the Himalayas.

At least three people were injured when a policeman opened fire to disperse a crowd in Jammu, police said, adding that the constable was later beaten up by protesters. (Additonal reporting by Ashok Pahalwan; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Alex Richardson) (For the latest Reuters news on India see: http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in)

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