MILITANTS dressed in Indian Army uniform killed eight people in attacks on an Indian police station and army base near the Pakistan border this morning, triggering calls to cancel talks between the nations' leaders at the weekend.
The group of about three militants killed six people in the attack on the police station in Jammu and Kashmir, then hijacked a truck and drove to the army camp, where they were hiding in a building, security forces said.
They killed at least two soldiers, including a Lieutenant Colonel, a senior army office said.
"They abandoned the truck on the national highway and perhaps took another vehicle and carried out an attack on the army camp in Samba. The gunfight inside the camp is going on," said Rajesh Kumar, an inspector general of police.
Just a day before the attack, India's Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said he would meet his Pakistan counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the weekend. They are expected to discuss rising violence in Kashmir.
Politicians from India's opposition party immediately called for the cancellation of the talks, the first between the two leaders since Sharif returned to office in May.
While Dr Singh strongly condemned what he called a "heinous terrorist attack" he suggested the meeting, expected on Sunday (September 29), would go ahead.
"This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace," Dr Singh said in a statement. "Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue."
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah told reporters he believed the group had entered from Pakistan within the last 24 hours.
Pakistan's army and government were not immediately available for comment.
A witness said gunfire could still be heard late in the morning and three helicopters were hovering over the army camp where police said the militants were holed up inside a building.
Television footage showed security men taking positions, firing from just outside the camp's walls and closing the main gate. Wounded men were being lifted out.
Pakistan denies arming or training militants.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks violence in Kashmir, 128 people, including 44 security personnel, have been killed in the region this year, before the latest attack. That compares with 117 people killed in 2012.
