Jammu, May 31 (IANS): Vehicles went off the roads and shops and businesses were shut Thursday in this Kashmir city as part of an all-India shutdown to protest the fuel price hike.

Attendance in banks and offices was thin, official and other sources said. The worst hit by the protest were Vaishno Devi pilgrims and tourists who arrive here in thousands daily.

"We had planned a trip to Vaishno Devi nearly a month ago. Now we are harassed with no commuter service available and all shops closed," lamented Subash Gupta from Delhi.

"How can ladies and children walk long distances in such heat?"

The Jammu railway station presented a scene of chaos as tourists were left clueless about the shutdown and faced a harrowing time trying to hire cabs to Srinagar or other tourist places.

A police official told IANS that the situation was peaceful.

Thursday's protest was called several groups including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose activists took out marches in the city shouting slogans against the UPA government.

BJP state president Shamsher Singh Manhas said: "It is a complete, peaceful and spontaneous bandh."

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) workers staged a sit-in near the Jammu Press Club.