CALCUTTA - A policeman wounded in a shooting attack last week outside a U.S. cultural centre in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta died early on Thursday, raising the death toll from the bloody raid to five, police said.

Four policemen died and 18 policemen were wounded on January 22 when the assailants, who India alleged were linked to a Pakistan-based militant group, opened fire outside the American Center that houses a trade office and a library.

"Ashraf Ali, one of our colleagues, died early this morning," said a Calcutta police spokesman, adding that five of the wounded policemen were still in hospital.

Indian authorities claimed the attackers had ties with the outlawed Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.

The attack stoked tensions between India and Pakistan which are locked in a dangerous military standoff over New Delhi's accusation that Islamabad sponsors "cross-border terrorism" against it, a charge Pakistan denies.

On Monday, police in the eastern state of Jharkhand said they killed two Pakistani men belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba who took part in the Calcutta raid. On Wednesday, Calcutta police said they arrested a man on suspicion of being an accomplice.

Earlier this month, under heavy international pressure, Pakistan banned Lashkar and four other militant groups operating on its soil and fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is at the core of the military standoff. Nampa-Reuters