Agencies/Srinagar/New Delhi

Four soldiers, six policemen and two civilians were killed in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday in an audacious terror attack that also left three militants presumably from Pakistan dead.
Furious over the nine hours of mayhem, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call off his talks with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York on Sunday. But Singh vowed to go ahead with the meeting.
The heavily armed guerrillas dressed in Indian army uniforms first barged into a police station in Jammu region, killing eight people, and then drove off with a truck to attack an army base where they shot dead an officer and three soldiers.
It was one of the worst terror attacks in recent times in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign for which India blames Pakistan shows no signs of ending.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the terrorists sneaked into the state from Pakistan in the last 12 hours. He hoped the killings would not derail the India-Pakistan talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The attack began in the morning when the militants reached a relatively unguarded police station at Hira Nagar in Kathua district, not far from the Pakistan border, lobbing grenades and firing away automatic weapons.
In no time, eight people lay dead: six policemen, a shopkeeper and the driver of a truck parked in the complex. Four others suffered splinter and bullet injuries.
The guerrillas escaped in the truck, drove on the Pathankot-Jammu highway and entered an army unit’s Officers’ Mess in Samba, some 35km from Jammu, killing Lt Col Bikramjeet Singh and three soldiers.
Some soldiers were also wounded in the second attack that began around 8.30am and ended nine hours later when commandos shot dead the terrorists.
An incensed BJP asked the government to cancel the Singh-Sharif talks.
“The PM is in a hurry to start a dialogue with Pakistan,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said. “There should be no talks with Pakistan unless there is a conducive environment.”
His colleague Sushma Swaraj tweeted: “No dialogue over dead bodies. Cancel your meeting with Nawaz Sharif.”
Another senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said there was no point talking to Pakistan if it was unable to prevent such attacks on India.
“We are not going to achieve anything and therefore I have no hesitation in saying that the prime minister should call off the talks ... I insist he should call off the talks even at this stage.” he said.
The prime minister, who was on his way to the US when he learnt of the attack, refused to oblige.
Singh said that “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.”
Conveying his condolences to the families of those killed, Singh said: “This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace.”
In an obvious reference to Pakistan, the prime minister said: “We are firmly resolved to combat and defeat the terrorist menace that continues to receive encouragement and reinforcement from across the border.”
In Srinagar, Chief Minister Abdullah said “it would be great injustice” if the India-Pakistan dialogue process got stalled following the terror attack in Jammu region.
He blamed the attack on “forces inimical to peace between India and Pakistan.” He said it would be difficult to speculate if the attack had the backing of the new government in Pakistan.
The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi also pressed for the talks.
“Our hearts go out in sympathy to the families of all those who fell victim to terrorist violence in Jammu today,” a statement from the mission said.
“It is imperative that senseless act of violence does not deter us from pursuing a path to a better future for our peoples,” it said.
Federal Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the militants had entered from Pakistan.
Militant strikes in Kashmir, as well as shooting and mortar fire between Indian and Pakistani forces across the border, have risen this year after a decade of falling violence.
Local English-language newspaper The Kashmir Monitor said it had received a call by satellite phone from a previously unknown militant group called Shouhda Brigade (“Martyrs Brigade”) which claimed responsibility.
The group said three Kashmiri militants were involved and they had killed 15 people. None of these claims could
be independently verified.
The leaders of several Pakistan-based groups warned last month of an “unprecedented” surge in activity in India as battle-hardened fighters transfer their attention from Afghanistan to the Himalayan region.
In a separate incident, the Indian army said it had killed at least a dozen militants from a group of 30 it said had crossed over from Pakistan into northern Kashmir. Lieutenant General Gurmeet Singh said that operation was still going on.