At least 13 people were killed, including two militants, following the raid at the Raghunath temple complex in the city of Jammu, the winter capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state. 

By the time the siege ended Monday, two Indian security personnel and nine civilians had been killed and more than 50 people wounded, dealing a blow to the prospect of peace negotiations over disputed Kashmir. 

The incidents are sparking heavy criticism of the newly elected state government of Jammu and Kashmir and its platform of pursuing negotiations with separatists. 

He said the actual attack was carried out by Al Mansooran, "which is a really a front organization" of Lashkar-e-Toiba. 

In a Monday afternoon address to parliament, Advani said the siege was part of a stepped up trend of attacks by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. 

"It's part of a deliberate design to create a communal divide in Jammu and Kashmir," said Advani. 

Third day of violence
The siege at the Raghunath temple -- a 150-year-old institution -- marked the third straight day of violence in the territory, a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947. 

New Delhi has blamed militant groups based in Pakistan and supported, it says, by Islamabad for carrying out the cross-border attacks. 

Pakistan has rejected the Indian accusations, saying it only gives moral support to the Kashmiri peoples' right to self-determination. 

The shootout with the second militant happened on a night in which police had imposed an indefinite curfew in this city. Initially, officials believed three militants had been killed. 

The raid was the second this year on the temple, where thousands of people come every day to worship. In March, nine people, including two militants, were killed. 

Authorities initially thought that two militants, armed with automatic weapons and grenades, had entered the temple, but the second of the two was killed outside another nearby temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. 

Attacks by Islamic militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir have escalated since a new provincial government took power last month. 

The new government wants New Delhi to begin talks and find a way to end more than a decade of violence that has left about 61,000 people dead. 

"The attacks in recent days," Advani said Monday, "make one speculate whether it is a mere coincidence that the spate of terrorist incidents has occurred just when the process of government formation has been completed in Pakistan." 

However, that seems increasingly unlikely after Sunday's attack, condemned by hardline Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani as what he called "terrorist violence." 

"It's a tragedy which is a warning for those who think that we can afford to relax," Advani said. 

On Saturday, 17 people were killed in a series of attacks across the disputed region, including one in which Islamic militants detonated a land mine beneath a passing convoy, killing eight Indian soldiers and four civilians. 

A day earlier six members of India's Central Reserve Police Force were killed and nine others wounded after two suspected militants launched a suicide attack on a police camp in Kashmir, authorities said.