Pidie – Hundreds of thousands tried to beat tight security Thursday to reach the capital of Indonesia's troubled Aceh province for a pro-independence rally, as police and residents said 16 people had died in two days of violence.

Security forces killed 12 people in separate incidents on Wednesday as they sought to bar them from reaching the provincial capital of Banda Aceh for the two-day rally on Friday and Saturday.

A 13th person died Thursday and five others were in a critical condition after they were gunned down by security forces in the Ulee Gle area of Pidie district, some 75 kilometers from Banda Aceh, a local journalist said. They had resisted attempts by troops to block them from joining the rally, he added.

Three bodies were also found on Thursday in two areas in Pidie. The bodies all bore the marks of gunshot wounds. The deaths brought to 16 the number of people killed in the past two days in Aceh, a staunchly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Aceh police operations spokesman, Senior Superintendent Kusbini Imbar, estimated about 10,000 people had entered Banda Aceh in the past few days. "It is rather difficult to get a more precise estimate of their number because they are all over the city, sleeping in vacant lots or open spaces," Imbar told AFP from Banda Aceh, denying police were preventing them from reaching the city. "We are only checking their identities and the papers of their vehicles," Imbar said.

But Muhammad Saleh, an activist from the organizing committee, told AFP 20,000 people were already packing one area of the city. "There are more than 20,000 Acehnese now spending the night at a field in the Darussalam University," Saleh said.

"We are estimating that about two and a half million residents of Aceh will be able to arrive here by tomorrow ... although more than 30 points of disembarkation across the province are being blocked by security troops."

The rally will mark the first anniversary of a public call for a referendum on self-rule in Aceh. The planned two-day mass gathering will take place at Banda Aceh's Baiturrahman grand mosque, where almost one million people gathered peacefully on November 8 last year to demand a vote on self-rule.

Hundreds of people have been killed this year in violence involving separatist rebels and government security forces in the resource-rich region on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

The government and rebel forces have extended a three-month truce – known as a humanitarian pause – until January. But it has failed to stem the violence. Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said in Jakarta that a joint forum discussion will be held in Geneva on November 16 and 17.

Jakarta, which has ruled out independence for Aceh, will put on the table at the Geneva meeting "a concrete proposal," he said. "The proposal in essence offers special autonomy and an accelerated development for Aceh," he said.

A decade of military brutality to quell the rebellion and the perceived exploitation of Aceh's oil and gas reserves by Jakarta has fed the sentiment of separatists in the staunchly Muslim province.

Chief rally organizer, Muhammad Nazar, has assured authorities the two-day gathering will be peaceful, and criticized security forces for trying to block people from attending the rally. Nazar said he feared the "public will put up resistance" if troops try to prevent them from entering Banda Aceh.

The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has ruled out independence for Aceh offering instead wide-ranging autonomy, which was promised by the previous administration but never given.