Police: Pakistan Group Behind Mumbai Siege
The only gunman captured by police after a string of attacks on Mumbai told authorities he belonged to the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a senior police officer said Sunday.
Police have said 10 gunmen terrorized Mumbai during a 60-hour siege, and all but one were shot dead.
Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said the assailant now in custody told police the group had intended to hit more targets during their attacks on India's financial capital that left at least 174 dead.
"Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind the terrorist acts in the city," Maria told reporters. "The terrorists were from a hardcore group in the L-e-T."
India's Home Ministry could not be immediately reached for comment.
The group has long been seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help wage its clandestine war against India in disputed Kashmir.
Police arrested the lone surviving militant, Ajmal Qasab, and Maria said he confessed his links to Lashkar during interrogation.
"Ajmal Qasab has received training in a L-e-T training camp in Pakistan," he said. "Our interrogation indicates that the terrorists had other places that they also intended to target."
Maria declined to offer any other details.
As investigations continue into one of India's deadliest terrorist attacks, pressure is mounting on the Indian government to account for what went wrong, reports CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton.
Two top security officials have already resigned. India's Prime Minister has also vowed to boost the size of the country's anti-terrorism forces, which face criticism for arriving at the scene long after the gunfire began.
Indian newspapers report their government had been warned of a possible attack by sea and many are now questioning why that intelligence was ignored. Two local fishermen noticed the attackers coming ashore and were suspicious.
"They were carrying schoolbags on their shoulders and two handbags probably carrying ammunition and AK 47 guns," a fisherman explains.
Officials now believe Westerners weren't the only targets in the attacks, Hatton reports. Instead, it is thought the gunmen wanted to kill as many people as possible, no matter their nationality.
Many witnesses have said the gunmen were remarkably calm. Newspaper photographer Sebastien D'Souza followed militants operating in the train station, taking photos throughout.
"This is where I got the picture of the two and they exchanged some couple of words and then the guy dropped his bag," syas D'Souza, with the Mumbai Mirror. "I think it was empty there was no amo in it - he dropped his bag and then moved forward and kept firing from the hips, never raised the gun, very cool."
Earlier, a United States counterterrorism official had said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al Qaeda.
Lashkar was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
In April 2006, the U.S. Department of State listed Jamaat-ud-Dawa as terrorist organizations for being an "alias" of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Pakistani government offered no immediate response.
Speaking earlier Sunday, a spokesman for a Jamat-ud Dawa denied any link to Lashkar-e-Taiba and said he condemned the attack.
"We condemn the killings of civilians. We condemn such killings in a terrorist activity, and at the same time we condemn it happening in the shape of state terrorism, as we see in Srinagar, Kashmir," Abdullah Muntazir said, referring to alleged Indian army atrocities in the disputed Kashmir region.
India has blamed "elements" from Pakistan for the 60-hour siege during which suspected Muslim militants hit 10 sites across India's financial capital, leaving at least 174 dead.
Despite India's claim, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, said, "I don't think that this is the time for India or anybody in India to accuse Pakistan. It's time to work with Pakistan. Pakistan is now a democracy. India is a democracy. And as two democracies, we need to strengthen each other, rather than fall into the trap of the terrorists, who want us to fight with each other so that they can get greater strength."
India repeatedly has accused Pakistan of complicity in terrorist attacks on its soil, many of which it traces to militant groups fighting Indian rule in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir. The U.S. has tried to persuade Pakistan to shift its security focus from India, with which it has fought three wars, to Islamic militants along the Afghan border.
President-elect Barack Obama told Time magazine in an interview in October that "Kashmir in particular is an interesting situation ... that is obviously a potential tar pit diplomatically." He spoke of devoting "serious diplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there to figure out a plausible approach."
When asked if that sounded like a job for former President Clinton, Obama replied, "Might not be bad" and that they had spoken about the issue when they had lunch in September in Clinton's New York office.
Seeking Answers
The battle of Mumbai lasted three days; it may take a lot longer than that to piece together exactly how it was planned and carried out, and by whom, says CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.
Throughout the multiple attacks and the response of government troops, the rumors flew like bullets - some true, some not.
Battles flared up, literally. Some were declared over and then flared up again. As the smoke has cleared, though, some of the basics seem clear:
This terror came from the sea. Rubber boats were apparently used to ferry the attackers ashore, possibly from an Indian fishing boat which was reported hijacked.
Once ashore, the attackers fanned out toward their planned targets, all closely grouped in Mumbai's commercial heart.
First to the train station, where they fired indiscriminately at people on the crowded concourse. Then, on to one of the city's landmark restaurants where they also opened fire.
The intent in both these attacks was simple: To cause carnage and confusion. And security experts like Will Geddes say, the attackers knew exactly what they were doing.
"Certainly the intelligence that I have been speaking to in India has indicated that they had professional training," Giddes told CBS News. "They may even be former soldiers themselves."
That training came into play again at the next major targets, Mumbai's two best-known hotels, the Oberoi and the Taj Mahal, and a center run by a New York-based Orthodox Jewish sect, Chabad Lubavitch. Here the intent seemed to be not just to kill but to take hostages.
"Anyone who had a British or American passport they wanted to know," one witness said at the scene. "They were after foreigners."
At the Jewish center, an American rabbi and his Israeli- born wife were among the hostages. Their two-year-old son was somehow smuggled out.
Commandos made their assault from a helicopter. They killed the attackers but found the hostages dead.
Indian officials say all this was managed by only ten attackers, a number security experts like Geddes find difficult to accept.
"I can't see how nine simultaneous attacks across the city within the scope of 30 minutes could be achieved by a ten-person team," he said.
As the funerals have begun, the hard questions are being asked, including the biggest question of all: Is this the first wave of a new kind of terrorism?
Security analyst Crispin Black told CBS News, "I think this is going to change things. You want to be a suicide bomber, put a pack on your back and go blow yourself up on an underground train, or do you want to go down in a blaze of glory? It's a sad and sinister thing to say but I think we need to look out for this in the future."
The first view of the future may have been during 60 bloody hours this past week in Mumbai.
Prayers After 60 Bloody Hours
On the first Sunday since terrorists attacked Mumbai, hundreds gathered to pray. Memorials and funerals took place for some victims of the attacks.
In Mumbai, a special memorial service was held for police officials killed. At least three top Indian police officers - including the chief of the anti-terror squad - were among those killed.
Other residents of Mumbai also began cremating their dead.
The journalist community in the Indian capital also gathered in large numbers on Sunday to bid farewell to the well-known scribe and food critic Sabina Sehgal Saikia who lost her life.
Saikia was cremated in New Delhi after her body was found on the gutted 6th floor of the Taj Mahal hotel on Saturday. She had been trapped in the hotel after gunmen stormed the building and she had been sending messages to her husband until midnight on Wednesday.
The death toll, officially 174, included many foreigners. Six Americans died in the carnage, but officials now believe Westerners weren't the main targets, reports CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton.
It's thought they wanted to kill thousands of people.
Still, many question why more isn't being done to secure the city.
At the city's main train station, more than 40 people died in a shower of bullets. Metal detectors at the doors weren't enough to stop two men from walking inside with hand grenades and AK-47 rifles.
Two top security officials submitted their resignations, but that might not appease public anger, says filmmaker Simone Ahuja:
"People are frustrated. They're asking their politicians what's going on and what are they going to do to improve the situation."
Mumbai is reawakening. Weddings are happening again, but a pall lies heavy over the city, as so many questions remain unanswered.