The New Nation - Internet Edition

NN report based on agencies

The world is worried about a possible surge in violence between India and Pakistan after the bloody attacks on Mumbai that killed 195 people. The gunmen wanted to go down in history for an India 9/11 after America, it seems. The incident, however described, happened in the wake of the greatest intelligence failure after 9/11.

During the first hours of the attacks at iconic buildings and famous landmarks across Mumbai, police seemed utterly powerless. Top officials, including the head of the city's anti-terrorist force, were gunned down in the firefight.

It was only when elite Black Cats commandos, the same force that guards Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the naval special force arrived to tackle the remaining militants holed up in the Taj, the Trident Oberoi and a Jewish centre, that the tide appeared to turn.

At least three gunmen battled with India's best-trained commandos for two days in the maze of corridors in the Taj Hotel, setting fire to places as they moved from floor to floor.

"At times we found them matching us in combat and movement," one commando told the Hindustan Times. "They were either army regular or have done a long stint of commando training. They were behaving the way Indian commandos would have."

In one four-to-five-hour gunbattle, the militants retreated through a hidden door in the hotel. The troops did not know even the door existed, the Hindustan Times reported.

The gunmen also threw grenades to destroy the close circuit television control room early on in the siege.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. America is concerned about a flare-up in animosity similar to one that occurred after Pakistani militants attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001, an US official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Underscoring those fears, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called the foreign minister of India twice, along with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, since the crisis began.

"There were very worrying tensions in the region," said Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman. "She was calling the president of Pakistan to get his read on how those tensions might be affected."

As U.S. officials worked to ease hard feelings between India and Pakistan, a tentative rapprochement between the two nuclear-armed rivals could hang in the balance.

Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, said in a statement that his country is "confronting the menace of terrorism with great vigor." Haqqani insisted "it is unfair to blame Pakistan or Pakistanis for these acts of terrorism even before an investigation is undertaken."

India's foreign minister has said "elements with links to Pakistan" were involved in the attacks on Mumbai.

However, his Pakistani counterpart has urged India not to bring politics into the issue, saying "we should join hands to defeat the enemy".

The Pakistani government is to hold an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss the attacks.

All eyes will now be on India's investigation of the attacks, our correspondent says, with questions already being asked about the failure of its intelligence agencies to uncover the plans.

The commandos suspect that the militants knew the hotel well because they were very mobile during the course of the siege, he says, making it extremely difficult for security forces to secure an area in order to evacuate guests. Several militants checked into the Taj in the weeks before the attack, gathering details of the hotel layout, several newspapers reported. They filmed some locations on scouting trips.

Indian media have reported that one of the militants worked as a chef for 10 months at the hotel. Television footage sowed the assailants carrying automatic rifles and backpacks filled with ammunition and grenades. Analysts said the fact that the gunmen quickly fanned across the city and were able to hold off Indian security forces over three days suggested that they had received training at organised camps.

"What is striking about this is a fair amount of planning had to go into this type of attack", said Roger W. Cressey, a former White House counter terrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "This is not a seat-of-the-pants operation. This group had to receive some training or support from professionals in the terrorism business."

The Guardian reports that the gunmen were more likely to be homegrown Indian terrorists, rather than foreigners.

Some have described this as India's 9/11, and people in India now want answers as to who is responsible.

The worst terrorist attack in India's commercial capital since nearly 200 people were killed in a series of bombings in 2006 - has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.

However, most intelligence officials are keeping an open mind as the attacks have thrown up conflicting clues, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

BOMB ATTACKS IN INDIA IN 2008

30 October: Explosions kill at least 64 in north-eastern Assam

30 September: Blasts in western India kill at least seven

27 September: Bomb blasts kills one in Delhi

13 September: Five bomb blasts kill 18 in Delhi

26 July: At least 22 small bombs kill 49 in Ahmedabad

25 July: Seven bombs go off in Bangalore killing two people

13 May: Seven bombs hit markets and crowded streets in Jaipur killing 63

Pakistan on Saturday reversed its decision to send its powerful military intelligence chief to help probe the Mumbai terror attacks, as the army said it had not been consulted on the plan.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to send the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief during a phone conversation Friday, after New Delhi blamed the attacks on its neighbour.

"A spokesman of the Prime Minister's House has said that a representative of ISI will visit India instead of the Director General of the ISI to help in investigating the Mumbai terrorism incident," a statement said overnight.

Both Gilani and President Asif Zardari talked to Singh and offered to cooperate in the investigation, amid concerns the row could unhinge a slow-moving process between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Gilani cut short a stay in the eastern city of Lahore and flew back to Islamabad late Friday for urgent consultations after unease in military circles over the unprecedented move to send the ISI chief to India, senior government officials said.

Before the government U-turn, chief army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas had told AFP that the decision to send the ISI chief had not been conveyed officially to the army.

The statement indicating the government's change of heart was issued a few hours later.

Gilani was to chair a special meeting of his cabinet later in the day to discuss the ramifications of Indian allegations that elements from Pakistan were involved in the Mumbai carnage.

An official in Prime Minister House said a special plane was being sent to India to bring back Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to participate in the emergency cabinet meeting.

The Mumbai attack came while Qureshi was in India for bilateral talks with Indian officials.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sing in a televised statement said that the organisers of the attacks were |based outside the country".

In what was seen as veiled indictment of neighbours he warned India's neighbors that "the use of their territory for launching attacks on us will not be tolerated."

In response, Pakistan's defense minister Mukhar Ahmed condemned the Mumbai attacks and warned India to refrain from accusing its longtime rival of involvement. And some security experts wanted that India has plenty of home-grown extremists who could be behind the violence.

The Indian allegation surprised Pakistan's new democratic government, which has repeatedly vowed to work with India to combat terrorism in the region.