Later, hospital officials in Mukheriyan said another four people had died from injuries and 17 people were in serious condition.
Railway officials said there appeared to have been a mix-up that allowed the local train onto the single-track main line at the wrong time.
"I don't consider this to be an accident but murder. It was sheer negligence on the part of the concerned officials," said Railways Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav after visiting the injured in Mukheriyan.
He ordered the suspension of two stationmasters and a probe into the accident, which happened just before midday. He said the stationmasters could face accusations of "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".
At least four carriages were badly damaged in the collision of an express and local train deep in rural India, 150 kilometres east of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in the northern state of Punjab.
"I felt a violent jerk and next moment I realised everybody was jumping out to save their lives. As we came out we saw the passenger train engine on fire and twisted pieces of iron all around," one passenger, Neeta Mohindroo, said.
Rescue workers used gas-powered cutters to reach passengers trapped inside the trains, some of whom were screaming for help. Villagers carrying iron rods, axes and ropes raced to pull out passengers.
"People were shrieking as they were trapped inside coaches," said Jodha Mal, 40, owner of a shop near the site. He said he heard a huge screeching as the drivers tried desperately to halt before the loud collision.
The bodies pulled from the mangled wreckage included 15 men, 11 women and one child. "Many of the dead were badly mutilated," said police superintendent Hoshiarpur Sukdev Singh Bhatti.
The express train had left Jammu in Kashmir on Tuesday morning bound for the western city of Ahmedabad. The local train was travelling between Jalandhar and Pathankot.
"I heard a loud crash, almost a big blast. I ran out of my house to see smoke. Men and women from our village rushed to the accident site with ladders to try and get out as many people as possible," said one woman, Kamla Rani.
At the crash site, rescue workers loaded bodies covered with white sheets into vans for transport to local morgues. Luggage lay strewn on the ground.
Authorities appealed to villagers to donate blood.
Tearful relatives thronged railway stations seeking word on the fate of their passengers.
The express train was believed to be carrying up to 700 people at the time of the accident, said Mulkha Raj Sharma, superintendent at Jammu station.
Soldiers were called out to help in the rescue efforts and cranes were at the scene near Mansar village to pry apart the trains.
MAJOR TRAIN DISASTERS: THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF THE MOST SERIOUS TRAIN ACCIDENTS IN INDIA OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS:
AUGUST 16, 1984: At least 100 die when a train falls in a river in the northern state of Madhya Pradesh.
FEBRUARY 23, 1985: Around 100 die when a train catches fire near Calcutta.
JULY 8, 1988: A train derails in the southern state of Kerala, claiming 105 lives.
APRIL 16, 1990: A train catches fire near Patna, the capital of the eastern state of Bihar, leaving around 100 dead.
AUGUST 20, 1995: 305 dead and 344 injured in a collision between two trains in Ferozabad, near the northern town of Agra.
SEPTEMBER 14, 1997: At least 100 die and more than 200 are injured when five wagons fall into a river in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
NOVEMBER 26, 1998: At least 209 die in collision between two trains in Punjab.
AUGUST 2, 1999: 285 are killed and 312 injured in collision between two trains in Gaisal in the eastern state of West Bengal.
DECEMBER 2, 2000: 42 die and around 140 injured in a collision between a passenger train and a goods drain that derails in Sarai Banjara in Punjab.
JUNE 23, 2001: At least 59 die and 241 injured when the Mangalore-Madras falls into a river in Kerala when a bridge breaks.
SEPTEMBER 10, 2002: 130 people die when the Rajdhani Express linking Calcutta to New Delhi plunges into a river in Rafiganj in the eastern state of Bihar.
MAY 15, 2003: At least 38 die in a fire in an express train near Ludhiana in Punjab.
JUNE 24, 2003: 51 die in the derailment of a train in the western state of Maharastra. Authorities blame the accident on rocks and mud on the track following heavy rains.
AUGUST 18, 2004: At least 38 are killed and 55 injured in a collision near Kharagpur in west Bengal.