One dead as Indian troops open fire on Kashmiri protest

The brazen attack was launched on a demonstration by hundreds of residents angry about mid-winter power cuts.The chief minister of the Muslim-majority region in northwestern India called the incident in northern Boniyar village an inexcusable use of force and said five officers had been arrested.Swift and exemplary action has followed. Law will now follow course, Omar Abdullah wrote on Twitter.A police officer explained to AFP that security forces had opened fire when unruly protesters hurled stones and tried to storm the main office of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).One demonstrator died and one was injured, said the officer, asking not to be named.Protests over electricity -- a highly political issue in Kashmir -- have erupted over the past few days following blackouts because of power-generation problems.Temperatures of minus 14 degrees Celsius (seven degrees Fahrenheit) have led lakes to freeze and rivers to run lower than usual, causing difficulties for the hydroelectric projects that provide 70 percent of local power.Electricity generation is controversial in Kashmir, where many locals resent the NHPC because it harnesses local mountain rivers to generate power but sells much of it to the rest of India.It provides 12 percent of total power generated from Kashmir rivers free of cost to the local government as a royalty. The remainder is sold in Kashmir and elsewhere at market rates.The area of Boniyar where Mondays violence took place is close to one of the major NHPC-owned power projects, but local villages have faced frequent power cuts.The shooting sparked more protests with young men burning tyres to block the main highway used by the army to carry supplies to posts along the de facto border with Pakistan.Security forces, particularly paramilitaries and army personnel, in Indian Kashmir are routinely accused by human rights group of using excessive force and torture.The armed forces are shielded from prosecution by long-standing emergency laws that grant them sweeping powers to detain people, kill and destroy private property.Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the section controlled by New Delhi and freedom fighters have waged a 20-year battle against the state, costing an estimated 47,000 lives. --Agencies