A 42- year-old man was wounded Monday after Indian army troopers allegedly fired at him in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The firing incident took place early Monday at Lashkoot forests of Malangam village in the frontier district of Bandipora, around 85 km north of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian- controlled Kashmir.

Muhammad Anwar Tass was returning from the forest area when troopers fired at him.

"The man was wounded at around 1 a.m. after being hit by a bullet fired by our men deployed in the area," said Lt. Col. J S Brar, an Indian army spokesman in Srinagar. "The man was asked to stop but he tried to run away, thereby forcing troopers to fire at him."

Brar said the wounded civilian was immediately airlifted to the army hospital in Srinagar and was operated upon. "His condition is stable now," he added.

Indian army officials say the area remains under surveillance, for being an infiltration route.

Earlier, this month a youth was wounded in a similar incident at Zachaldara-Handwara.

New Delhi has imposed the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the region, which gives extraordinary powers to its troops such as shooting a person on mere suspicion in the region.

Indian troops and police are consistently been accused of grave human rights violations in the region.

Indian-controlled Kashmir is considered as one of the highest militarized regions in the world. Officially India does not reveal the actual number of its troops deployed in Kashmir. Rights groups say that India has deployed more than 700,000 troopers and paramilitary troopers in the region to fight militants.

A guerrilla war is also going on between militants and Indian troops stationed in the region since 1989.