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DINANAGAR, India — A 12-hour gunbattle involving heavily-armed men dressed in military fatigues who seized a police station near the border with Pakistan ended Monday, Indian police said.

Three assailants were among nine people killed during the incident in the frontier state of Punjab.

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The gunmen had pulled up at the police complex in a stolen car with automatic weapons blazing at about 5 a.m. (7:30 p.m. ET Sunday).

A soldier runs during a gunbattle in the town of Dinanagar, India, on Monday. Channi Anand / AP

Any proof of links between Pakistan and the attackers would be sure to increase tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since both nations gained independence in 1947.

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 fields surrounding it, some 10 miles from the international border, Reuters witnesses said.

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

Pakistan has denied any involvement in insurgencies in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and Islamabad's foreign office said it was not aware of any reports that the people involved in Monday's attack were Pakistani.