Indian-controlled Kashmir's main city was under curfew Thursday after the killing of five paramilitary police and the death of two civilians cranked up tensions in the disputed region.

Kashmir's inspector general of police Abdul Gani Mir said a round-the-clock curfew order had been imposed in the city of Srinagar while there were similar restrictions in other towns and villages in the Kashmir Valley.

"It is an indefinite curfew," Mir told AFP in Srinagar, where major roads were blocked with steel barricades and coils of razor wire.

Schools and government offices were closed while the University of Kashmir postponed all examinations which had been scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

A Kashmiri militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for an attack Wednesday, when two militants killed five members of the Central Reserve Police Force before being shot dead themselves.

India's Interior Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told lawmakers on Thursday that the attackers appeared to be of Pakistani origin, reiterating earlier accusations from the government.

"The authenticity of the claim (by Hizbul Mujahideen) is being verified. From their bodies they appeared to be from Pakistan," the minister said.

Shinde said investigators had recovered two diaries containing Pakistani names and phone numbers.

Mir also said "medicines, diaries and other material found on the bodies of the militants showed they are from Pakistan."

However the foreign ministry in Islamabad denied any Pakistani link to the attack. "We feel that this trend of making irresponsible statements and knee-jerk reactions by senior Indian government functionaries have the potential of undermining the efforts made by both sides to normalize relations," it said.

Pakistan "condemns such actions of terrorism in the strongest possible terms and calls upon the government of India to carry out a thorough investigation before leveling such accusations, which are counterproductive and serve no purpose."

AFP