Protesters have a newname for the troops: Robots.

In Kashmir, troops now dress in high-tech black riot gear, covered head to foot in plastic armour that can make them look decidedly inhuman. They carry stun grenades, tear gas grenades and shotguns loaded with they say non-lethal pellets.

They are the vanguard trying to fulfil Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's order last month to staunch the bloodshed in Kashmir by using non-lethal measures to control the violent demonstrations that have shaken the Himalayan region for the past three months.

"We're now using a range of non-lethal weapons to control crowds," Shiv Murari Sahai, Kashmir's new police chief, toldThe Associated Press in an interview in his office in Indian Kashmir's main city Srinagar.

Outside his fortified office, a fleet of armoured vehicles and two brand new vehiclemounted water cannons were lined up, ready to be deployed.

Despite the new orders, protesters were still being killed by security forces using lethal force. Four more were killed Monday when security forces fired live ammunition into crowds of rock-throwing protesters in Palhalan, a village north of Srinagar, police said.

And the non-lethal weapons themselves have also proven lethal.

A separatist insurgency fighting for Kashmir's independence from Hindu-majority India or its merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan has been active since 1989, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict over the decades.

Resistance has shifted in recent years from militant attacks to street demonstrations.

At least 69 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since a new round of demonstrations broke out in June. Most of the killings occurred when troops fired directiy into the demonstrations. After widespread criticism from security experts and human rights groups, the Indian government changed its tactics.