Captured Mumbai gunman admits to ties with Pakistan group

Mumbai: The only gunman captured following the 60-hour terrorist siege of Mumbai said he was part of the Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said.

The gunman was one of 10 who paralysed the city in an attack that killed at least 174 people and revealed the weakness of India's security apparatus.

India's top law enforcement official on Sunday resigned, bowing to growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.

The announcement blaming militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, threatened to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Indian officials have been cautious about accusing Pakistan's government of complicity.

Lashkar, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in disputed Kashmir, was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the US, a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though that group has denied links to the Mumbai attack.

"These guys could do it next week again in Mumbai and our responses would be exactly the same," said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict
Management who has close ties to India's police and intelligence.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency.

Authorities were still removing bodies from the bullet-and-grenade-scarred Taj Mahal hotel, after commandos finally ended the three-day stretch of violence Saturday.