NEW DELHI, Dec. 13— A heavily armed suicide squad assaulted Parliament House here today in a brazen attack on the world's largest democracy, killing 7 people and injuring 18 before dying themselves. No elected official was harmed.
As hundreds of lawmakers milled about in the building, five gunmen -- armed with assault rifles, plastic explosives and dozens of grenades -- drove onto the fortresslike grounds by disguising themselves in a white Ambassador car with a light on the top, typical of vehicles used by government ministers and their entourages, officials said.
Guards closed the doors of the Parliament building before the attackers could enter. In a wild, half-hour battle outside, four of the attackers were fatally shot and a fifth, who had explosives strapped to his body, was blown up on the main steps of the grand sandstone building.
A gardener tending a bed of chrysanthemums, a driver and five police and security officers were killed.
No group took responsibility, and government officials refused to speculate publicly on who might have done it. But suspicion fell on Al Qaeda, the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden, and Islamic militant groups based in Pakistan that have sought to end Indian control over part of Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim border area that India considers a state in its union.
Pakistani officials quickly condemned the attack. But if such an assault was carried out by groups that Pakistan has harbored, efforts by the United States to balance support of the two nuclear-armed rivals as it wages war in nearby Afghanistan would be complicated.
India has long accused the Pakistanis, now important allies in the American campaign, of sponsoring terrorists themselves. While Indian officials have sought to assure the United States that they would show restraint in striking at terrorist camps in parts of Kashmir Pakistan controls, they also made clear that such a promise would be reconsidered in the event of another major attack by a group based in Pakistan.
Home Minister L. K. Advani did not link the attack to Pakistan today. He said, without elaborating, that he had studied the faces of the dead men and that they did not look Indian to him. Another senior official said the attackers appeared to be from different countries. Like Al Qaeda, militant groups based in Pakistan have also drawn Islamic fighters from other countries.
Today's attack was reminiscent of one carried out on Oct. 1 on the Legislative Assembly in Srinigar, summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which the two countries have fought over for half a century. Pakistani-backed Islamic militants have battled Indian rule there for years.
Responsibility for the Kashmir attack was first taken by Jaish-e-Muhammad, a group based in Pakistan, but it later disavowed the claim.
Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated sharply afterward, as India accused Pakistan of sponsoring terrorist acts and intensified its effort to root out Pakistani-based militants in Kashmir.
Today, an umbrella organization representing militant groups fighting in Kashmir denied any role in the attack on Parliament. But those groups have carried out bold attacks before. Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group based in Pakistan, took responsibility for an attack on Dec. 22, 1999, on a military installation at the Red Fort in the heart of the capital.
Today's attack, however, was the first by any group on the Parliament itself.
Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, today condemned the attack in New Delhi in a letter to India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, saying he was ''saddened by the loss of life.''
General Musharraf had also denounced the Oct. 1 attack in Kashmir, raising questions about whether the Pakistani leader was in full control of parts of his own military establishment that may be supporting the militants.
There was a rising chorus of condemnation today. President Bush called Mr. Vajpayee to offer the help of F.B.I. and State Department counterterrorism teams. The United States denounced the attack as a ''brutal assault on the heart of Indian democracy,'' a sentiment echoed by British, French and Russian officials.
Addressing the nation on television this afternoon, Mr. Vajpayee said: ''The battle against terrorism has reached its last phase. We will fight a decisive battle to the end.''
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