GANDHINAGAR, India (Reuters) - Indian commandos stormed a Hindu temple complex on Wednesday, ending a seven-hour standoff after gunmen armed with grenades massacred 29 people and wounded more than 70.
The raid on the pink sandstone Akshardham Temple in western Gujarat raised fears of stoked tensions with Muslim Pakistan and fresh religious violence in the state where at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in February and March.
"The incident is over," police superintendent R.B. Brahmabhatt told reporters. "All the three gunmen have been killed and we are still searching the entire premises."
Without explicitly naming Pakistan, Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani said "enemies of the country" were behind the attack.
Pakistan condemned the assault, which occurred in Advani's constituency, and denied any part in it.
The raid came just after polls closed in the second round of voting in state elections in Indian-ruled Kashmir. Islamic separatist rebels have vowed to sabotage the polls in the disputed Himalayan region.
A police official said one National Security Guard commando was killed in the siege that began on Tuesday when the unidentified gunmen burst into the temple and opened fire, killing 29 men, women and children.
The attack was the most serious since a military standoff began nine months ago between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan sparked by a raid on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The confrontation brought the nations close to war in June.
Local television showed temple visitors, who had been taking cover in assorted rooms around the complex, starting to emerge. It showed a mother and a daughter lying in a hospital bed.
The bloodbath began as devotees gathered for evening prayers on Tuesday in the temple, which attracts two million visitors a year.
"THANK GOD I'M ALIVE"
The gunmen burst in, firing at random and hurling grenades. Hundreds of pilgrims were in the complex at the time.
"There were about 600 people...Thank God I'm alive," said Gurumukh Palwani, 40, who escaped with his two children.
"About three of them barged into the temple and started firing...I managed to run and somehow escape," said 15-year-old Vipul Soni, his clothes spattered with blood.
Analysts have said another big attack could reignite tensions between India and Pakistan, which came close to war in June and still have a million troops massed along their common border.
"It appears they (the gunmen) are very well trained in guerrilla warfare," Brahmabhatt said earlier as he emerged from the complex housing a seven-foot golden idol of Lord Swaminarayan, an 18th-century monk who started the sect.
Kamal Farooqi, a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board, called on Muslims in India to "maintain peace."
"This is an attack on the country and we all should be united," he said.
Police tightened security across India to avert any religious backlash. "We're not taking any chances," said a police spokesman in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
Advani said the gunmen arrived in an Ambassador car, the same vehicle used by the gunmen who attacked India's parliament. The car, based on the 1950s Morris Oxford, is favored by VIPs.
Desperate relatives crowded hospitals for word on the fate of missing family members. Hundreds of others massed at the main temple gates as first aid workers and security forces carried out bloodied bodies of the dead and wounded on stretchers.
"I'm fortunate to be alive today," said 16-year-old Priti Nahata, who hid with a group of people in a room until the police came and told them it was safe to leave.