JULY 27 (Reuters) — India tightened security on its border with Pakistan on Monday (July 27) after gunmen stormed a police station in the northern frontier state of Punjab, killing six people and injuring several others.
The men, dressed in army uniforms, were holed up in the police station in Gurdaspur district near the border with Pakistan, officials said. Gunshots could be heard on television as security forces surrounded the police station in the town of Dinanagar, about 20 km (12 miles) from the border.
The dead included four civilians and two policemen, said H.S. Dhillon, a senior Punjab police officer. Some others were injured, he said.
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 India-Pakistan border”.
“I am confident that the situation will soon be brought under control,” he tweeted.
The group of about five attackers came in a white Maruti-Suzuki car, dressed in army uniforms, Harcharan Bains, an adviser to Punjab’s chief minister, told Reuters.
Gurdaspur is also on the border of the troubled Jammu and Kashmir state, while Punjab has its own history of militancy. India accuses old enemy Pakistan of training and arming militants in both Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, which Islamabad denies.