A general strike called by separatist rebels shut down businesses and public transport for a second day in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, residents said.

Gunshots and an explosion were heard on the outskirts of the provincial capital Banda Aceh early on Thursday. Towns across the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island were deserted as people stayed home in the face of rebel threats, according to initial reports reaching Banda Aceh.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) called a two-day strike from Wednesday to protest at alleged brutality by police and troops and at Jakarta's plan to revive a separate military command for the province.

In Banda Aceh police raided two shops near the closed Syah Kula university campus, firing shots in the air, residents said. The police took away several men from the shops.

A loud explosion was heard around 7am but the location could not be immediately ascertained. The Banda Aceh police spokesman said he had yet to receive a report on the incidents.

The mormally ubiquitous minibuses were absent from the streets for the second day. Military and police patrols were seen on the streets.

The military, Aceh administration officials and civic leaders have all urged the public to ignore the strike call. But cities and towns across Aceh were also deserted on the first day on Wednesday.

Soldiers have been given shoot-on-sight orders to foil any rebel attempts to block roads by felling trees.

The strike coincides with a two-day visit by Vice President Hamzah Haz to Aceh. He visited the southwest island of Simeuleu on Wednesday and was scheduled to make a trip to the southern district of Singkil Thursday to open a seminar on a former Acehnese intellectual.

GAM has been struggling to establish an independent Islamic state since 1976. Jakarta last year granted Aceh greater self-rule and a larger share of oil and gas revenues. It also allowed the staunchly Muslim region to implement Islamic law.

But President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of the country's founding president Sukarno, has vowed it will never win independence. More than 1,700 people died in 2001 and 97 have already been killed this year.