Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – In a dramatic escalation of violence in East Timor, the jailed resistance leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao called on his supporters yesterday to take up arms and fight Indonesian-backed militia groups.

The call followed an attack by hundreds of the militia on Mr Gusmao's supporters in East Timor early yesterday in which 17 people were reported killed and scores injured.

Until now Mr Gusmao, a former guerilla leader under house arrest in Jakarta, has ordered his supporters to act with restraint ahead of a promised vote in July to decide East Timor's future.

Mr Gusmao's lawyer, Mr Johnson Panjaitan, said last night that Mr Gusmao decided to make the call to fight after hearing of the attack. Mr Panjaitan said Mr Gusmao had been told the Indonesian military was sweeping through the streets of Dili, picking up pro-independence supporters. A human rights activist confirmed the attack and said Dili was tense.

Seventeen people had been killed during a day of violence in East Timor, the pro-independence National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) said, blaming several groups of paramilitary forces and the Indonesian military (ABRI) for attacks in Liquica and Maubara, 20 kilometres and 40 kilometres respectively west of Dili, the capital. Dozens of injured people were being taken for treatment in Dili and hundreds were trying to leave the area.

A militia group backed by ABRI had launched the attack in Maubara, according to CNRT's Dili secretariat spokesman, Mr Jose Reis.

The senior CNRT spokesman, Mr David Ximenes, said later the killings had moved to Liquica. "Seventeen have been killed," he said. "There is no number for the injured – there are so many." Mr Ximenes told Australian Associated Press that refugees, which some reports suggest number in the hundreds, were being stopped on the road by the paramilitary groups.

The attack comes after a spate of new threats against the pro-independence alliance which has sent scores of its members into hiding across the province.

Reports of the latest deaths filtered through to Dili just as the two bishops – Bishop Carlos Belo and Bishop Basilio Nasciamento – were due to meet leaders of the pro-integration movement to see if they were willing to participate in another round of reconciliation talks. Tension has increased over the past few days and refugees have been returning to some churches in outlying regions, where earlier this year they sought shelter from attacksby the paramilitary groups.

The killings in Maubara were attributed by CNRT to the Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) militia group.

Mr Reis said many CNRT members and leaders in the East Timorese towns of Dili, Viqueque and Maliana were hiding because "there are rumours that ABRI wants to capture them".

"There are also threats that they will be tortured and killed," he said. "ABRI goes from house to house in the night to find CNRT members. It wants to get them because the CNRT tried to bolster people's spirits over independence." The church at Suai, about 100 kilometres south-west of Dili, is once again home to more than 1,000 refugees who have fled their homes following renewed threats of violence from a local paramilitary group called Mahidi.