India prepares response to Kashmir massacre

An Indian policeman stands by as residents leave the neighborhood where the attack took place.

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's deputy prime minister says he will outline for parliament New Delhi's response to a militant attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Lal Krishna Advani will address parliament Tuesday having visited Jammu, the site of the deadliest attack in months in which 28 people were killed and at least 30 wounded on Saturday.

In Jammu, shops and businesses remained closed for much of Monday to protest the weekend massacre. Many strike participants are also angry about what they see to be New Delhi's muted response to the killings.

Thirteen women and two children were among those who died when gunmen threw hand grenades into a crowded slum.

No group has claimed responsibility, but authorities suspect Islamic guerrillas fighting to wrest the mostly Muslim region from Indian control.

India earlier condemned the weekend massacre, calling it "terrorism in its most naked form."

Pakistan has condemned the incident, saying it was aimed at increasing tensions between India and Pakistan.

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"What's sad is yesterday's incident was terrorism in its most naked form," Advani said Sunday as he visited the slum where the carnage occurred.

Ashok Suri, police chief of India's disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, said the militants threw two hand grenades before firing automatic weapons. The attackers were reportedly dressed as Hindu holy men.

The attack took place in a mostly Hindu neighborhood of poor laborers.

Security forces surrounded the neighborhood soon after the attack, but the attackers escaped under the cover of darkness after a fierce encounter that lasted nearly four hours, The Press Trust of India reported.

In a statement released Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said "the government condemns the killing of a number of civilians and injuries to many others in a terrorist attack on the outskirts of Jammu. The motivation behind the attack seems to be to enhance tension in the region."

Kashmir flashpoint

The incident was the latest in a series of attacks spurred by a long-running dispute between nuclear powers India and Pakistan over the flashpoint of Kashmir.

Tensions peaked last spring when both nations posted more than 1 million troops along their shared border and the Kashmiri Line of Control, which divides the disputed region between them.

A December raid on India's parliament and a May attack on an Indian army camp near Jammu stoked the tensions, which were only eased after Islamabad bowed to intense U.S.-led diplomatic pressure and pledged to stop guerrillas crossing the porous border into Indian Kashmir.

Saturday's raid came on the anniversary of a 1931 incident in which police killed dozens of protesters demonstrating against a Hindu princely ruler.

Since 1989, a Muslim separatist revolt has raged in Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority province in mostly Hindu India.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of providing funding and training to militants it accuses of carrying out a series of attacks against Indian targets, including a daring raid on the Indian parliament.

Pakistan denies the Indian charges saying that it gives only moral support to groups fighting what it calls a "freedom struggle" in the disputed Muslim majority region of Kashmir.

The Himalayan region has been the trigger for two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since the two were created by Britain's partition of the subcontinent at independence in 1947.

India holds 45 percent of Kashmir, Pakistan controls another third and China the rest.

India says at least 33,000 people have died since the rebellion began in 1989. Separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.

The attack comes ahead of a planned visit to the region in late July by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose efforts recently helped pull the two countries back from the brink of war.

-- CNN correspondents Ram Ramgopal and Mukhtar Ahmed contributed to this report.