Last terrorist at Taj hotel killed

Mumbai: Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel on Saturday, ending a 60-hour rampage that killed 195 people in India's financial capital, as authorities shifted their focus to who was behind the attacks.

A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed 18 foreigners including six Americans. Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman was from Pakistan and pointed a finger of blame at their neighbour.

Some 295 people also were wounded in the violence that started when at least a dozen heavily-armed assailants attacked ten sites across Mumbai on Wednesday night. At least 20 soldiers and police were among the dead.

Orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room Taj Mahal hotel after dawn yesterday as Indian forces ended the siege there in a hail of gunfire, just hours after elite commandos stormed a Jewish centre and found nine hostages dead.

"There were three terrorists, we have killed them," said J.K. Dutt, director general of India's elite National Security Guard commando unit.

Some hotel guests were still believed to be in their rooms. "They are still scared, so even when we request them to come out and identify ourselves, they are naturally afraid," Dutt said.

With the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India's history, attention turned from the military operation to questions of who was behind the attack and the heavy toll on human life.

By Saturday morning the death toll was at 195, the deadliest attack in India since 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai killed 257 people. But officials said the toll from the three days of carnage was likely to rise as more bodies were brought out of the hotels.

"There is a limit a city can take. This is a very, very different kind of fear. It will be some time before things get back to normal," said Ayesha Dar, a 33-year-old homemaker.

Bhushan Gagrani, the Maharashtra state government spokesman, said at least 11 gunmen had been killed and one captured alive.

On Saturday, the Indian navy said it was investigating whether a trawler found drifting off the coast of Mumbai, with a bound corpse on board, was used in the attack.

Navy spokesman Captain Manohar Nambiar said the trawler, named Kuber, had been found on Thursday and was brought to Mumbai. Officials said they believe the boat had sailed from a port in the neighbouring state of Gujarat.

Indian security officers believe many of the gunmen may have reached the city using a black and yellow rubber dinghy found near the site of the attacks.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen, which sounds like it could be a homegrown Indian group, but Indian officials pointed the finger at neighbouring Pakistan.

Sriprakash Jaiswal, India's minister of state in the home ministry, said the captured gunman had been identified as a Pakistani.

"According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for the Mumbai terror attacks," India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani insisted his country was not involved. His government was sending an intelligence official to assist in the probe.

On Friday, commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said.