Armed police exchanged fire with the gunmen, who were holed up in the police station in Gurdaspur district more than eight hours after the assault began at about 5 a.m. (2330 GMT Sunday), officials said.

The terrorists have killed six persons- three civilians and three policemen including Superintendent of Police (Detective), Baljit Singh, a Punjab provincial service officer, police said.

The attackers killed at least seven people – civilians and policemen – in the pre-dawn attack in Punjab, said Harcharan Singh Bains, a state government spokesman.

Gunfire could be heard throughout the day in the small town, which is approximately 10 miles from India’s border with Pakistan. “They are firing indiscriminately every five minutes”, a Punjab police official, who was injured in the attack, told media as he was being taken to the hospital.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist incident in Gurdaspur, India, in which a number of precious lives have been lost”.

Punjab Roadways driver Nanak Chand did not panic even when the terrorists fired at the bus and instead scared the terrorists by driving towards them. The alleged militants, who were masked as Indian military, attacked a relocating coach and after stormed law enforcement station in the upper town.

The town is about 15 km from the India-Pakistan border and 25 km from the border of Jammu and Kashmir state.

According to reports, three to four militants carried out the attack and police found five bombs on a railway track in the area.

Neighbouring Punjab, a majority-Sikh state, has largely been spared the violence that has plagued Indian Kashmir.

India’s Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he had spoken to the head of India’s Border Security Force and “instructed him to step up the vigil” on the border.

“I am confident that the situation will be soon brought in control”, another tweet from Mr. Singh’s verified account said.

Reports said Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team from Indian-controlled Kashmir were requisitioned by authorities in Punjab to take on attackers.

The three terrorists who created mayhem here yesterday before being eliminated were caught on a CCTV camera whose footage surfaced today in a significant development in the attack case.

The Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Salahuddin, denied his men had any involvement in the attack. “One of them is dead”, Mr. Sarna said. “They could be home-grown militants”, he told Reuters by telephone.