Gunmen in army uniform storm India police station

Gunmen have fired at a bus station and entered police barracks on the outskirts of a northern town bordering Pakistan, reportedly killing at least six people.

A police spokesman at the scene in the northern state of Punjab said he had witnessed one security officer being shot, and at least six people had been injured in the ongoing siege.

Increased border security

It remained unclear who was behind the assault on the police station.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he had ordered increased security on the border with Pakistan after the incident.

“This militancy is a national problem, not a state problem, so it needs to be tackled with a national policy,” Singh said.

“If prior intelligence input had been given, they should have properly sealed the borders.” he told reporters.

It is the first major attack in India’s Punjab for more than a decade.

Al Jazeera’s Nidhi Dutt, reporting from New Delhi, said the gunmen were wearing Indian army uniforms.

“The gunmen crossed over from a border region between India and Pakistan in the Jammu region. There is an ongoing security situation in the area,” she said.

The incident comes weeks after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif spoke for about an hour during a summit in Russia, raising hopes of an improvement in perennially difficult relations.