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The coordinated series of attacks, which began Wednesday night,
targeted 10 sites across Mumbai, including an iconic hotel and a
landmark train station. More than 150 people were killed in the
rampage, including at least 16 foreigners - four of them Americans.


      Local media speculation quickly settled on Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, a
Pakistan rebel group that has fought troops in Indian-controlled
Kashmir, but newspapers and TV channels have offered little
evidence for the suspicion.


      Indian federal home minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured
gunmen had been identified as a Pakistani while R. R. Patil, a top
official in Maharashtra state, said, "It is very clear that the
terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are
from Pakistan."


      Earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh blamed "external
forces" for the violence - a phrase sometimes used to refer to
Pakistani militants, whom Indian authorities often blame for
attacks.


      India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said "some elements
in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks," but he
added that "proof cannot be disclosed at this time.


      Mukherjee's carefully phrased comments appeared to indicate he
was accusing Pakistan-based groups of staging the attack, and not
Pakistan itself.


      None of the officials provided further details.


      A previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen
has claimed responsibility for the attacks.


      On Thursday a man identifying himself as spokesman for the
Lashkar rebel group denied any role in the attacks in an interview
to local Hindi news channel, in Indian Kashmir's main city Srinagar
over telephone.


      Lashkar has long been seen as a creation of the Pakistani
intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India
in disputed Kashmir.


      Any clear proof of Pakistani involvement would seriously
jeopardize fragile peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.


      Pakistan has vigorously denied all accusations that it was tied
to the attacks.


      "I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not
involved in these gory incidents," said Pakistan's Defense
Minister Ahmed Mukhtar.


      Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan were born in the bloody
partition of the subcontinent at independence from Britain in 1947.
They have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed
Himalayan region of Kashmir and held tit-for-tat nuclear weapons
tests before peace talks got under way in 2004.


      India has long accused Islamabad of allowing militant Muslim
groups, particularly those fighting in Kashmir, to train and take
shelter in Pakistan.


      New Delhi's past complaints about Pakistan have centered on its
Inter Services Intelligence agency.


      In an apparent goodwill attempt, Pakistan said Friday that it
would send its spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to
help probe the attacks. No date has been set for the visit.


      Analysts debated the level of Pakistan's possible involvement.


      The terror group "itself is probably drawing from, in large
numbers, Indian operatives, but it probably enjoys a fairly healthy
support of Pakistan," Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at
the RAND Corp., said Friday. "The big picture is that there's
probably going to be more of this, not less of this, to come."


      The British government, meanwhile, was investigating whether
some of the attackers could be British citizens with links to
Pakistan or Kashmir, a British security official told The
Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of his work.


      A U.S. investigative team was heading to Mumbai, a State
Department official said Thursday evening, speaking on condition of
anonymity because the U.S. and Indian governments were still
working out final details.


      India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on
Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking
crowded public places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai - one
of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million
people - was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed
187 people.


      But these latest attacks were significantly more sophisticated -
and more brazen.


      They began at about 9:20 p.m. with shooters spraying gunfire
across the Chhatrapati Shivaji railroad station, one of the world's
busiest terminals. For the next two hours, there was an attack
roughly every 15 minutes - the Jewish center, a tourist restaurant,
one hotel, then another, and two attacks on hospitals.


      The gunmen apparently came to Mumbai by boat, and Indian forces
expanded their investigation to the sea in the hours and days after
the attack.


      Authorities stopped a cargo ship off the western coast of
Gujarat that had sailed from Saudi Arabia and handed it over to
police for investigation, said Navy Capt. Manohar Nambiar.


      They also stopped a cargo ship that had come to Mumbai from
Karachi, Pakistan, but released it when nothing suspicious was
found on board.

Gallery

Indian forces kill last gunmen in Mumbai

Slideshow: Attacks in Mumbai (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

Massive explosion shakes Mumbai Jewish center

India pointed the finger of blame at Pakistan
on Friday, saying preliminary investigations into the bloody
attacks on its commercial capital showed that "some elements"
inside the rival nation were responsible.

Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images

Military personnel take up positions at the Taj Ma

Military move in near the Taj Mahal Hotel

India blames "elements" in Pakistan for attacks

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