The Centre has stayed the hanging of Balwant Singh Rajoana, assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh.
Punjab is currently under a shutdown organized by Sikh groups to protest the hanging, that was scheduled for Saturday.
Protest marches were taken out in many places demanding clemency for Rajoana for his role in the 1995 assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
Authorities said barring stray incidents of unrest, the situation was largely peaceful. Rajoana himself appealed to Sikh youths to remain calm, even after his death.
He said he will not submit any mercy petition to the president or prime minister to get his death sentence commuted, and added that he was waiting to die Saturday.
The area around the prison came under heavy security cover. Barricades were put up on roads leading to the complex.
Patiala police chief Gurpreet Singh Gill said tight security was in place around the prison.
A court in Chandigarh on Tuesday directed that the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist be hanged on Saturday for playing a role in the killing of Congress chief minister Beant Singh.
The high-profile assassination took place some two years after a bloody decade-long Sikh separatist campaign was crushed in 1993 after the loss of some 25,000 lives.