The Border Security Force claimed a Pakistani paramilitary force was behind the attack, which took place Sunday in the border town of Samba in the northern region of Jammu, the Hindustan Times reported.

Police Inspector General K. Rajendra said the heavily armed infiltrators belonged to the group Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Rajendra said they first entered the house of the president of the National Democratic Party, killing the party president and his wife and seriously injuring their two daughters.

An eyewitness said the attackers next headed toward the Jammu-Pathankot highway. Seeing an army patrol, however, they hid inside a house, taking the family inside hostage, and began shooting at security forces outside.

"Concerned about the hostages' safety, we stopped the firing about midway. A tenant in the house, Madhu Sharma, was hit during the first round of firing. She bled to death by the time soldiers got to her," army spokesman Lt. Col. S.D. Goswami said.

During the shootout, the militants also fatally shot a police officer, an army officer and a photojournalist who had been photographing the house.