Gunfight in Punjab

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his top ministers have not made detailed statements on the attack, which came weeks after he met Pakistan's premier Nawaz Sharif in an attempt to revive stalled relations between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan issued a statement condemning the assault and extending condolences to the government and people of India, pushing back against suggestions by some Indian security sources that the assailants had crossed from Pakistani territory.

In the first such attack in Indian Punjab in more than a decade, the gunmen shot dead a barber and tried to hijack a bus before rushing the police station, witnesses said.

Throughout the day, regular bouts of small arms fire echoed across the town of Dinanagar and the surrounding paddy fields, some 15 km from the international border.

Regional police chief Sumedh Singh Saini told reporters at the scene it was "too early to say" where the gunmen had come from.

They were equipped with automatic weapons, ammunition, and grenades. Two GPS satellite location devices found on the men would be examined for clues, he said.

Three policemen and three civilians were also killed, according to the home ministry.

This was the first such assault in Punjab in 13 years, according to data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks militant violence.

Some analysts speculate the attack could mark the reappearance of Punjabi separatists who battled the Indian government in the 1980s, including the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the hands of Sikh bodyguards in 1984.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since both nations gained independence in 1947.