Official: India Received Intel on Mumbai Attacks

(MUMBAI, India) — India picked up intelligence in recent months that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said Tuesday, as the government demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against those behind the deadly rampage.

The U.S., meanwhile, pressured Islamabad to cooperate with the investigation.

The only known surviving attacker told police that his group trained for months in camps operated by a banned Pakistani militant group, learning close-combat techniques, explosives training and other tactics for their three-day siege.

India's foreign intelligence agency received information as recently as September that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, according to a government intelligence official familiar with the matter.

The information was then relayed to domestic security officials, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk publicly about the details.

The revelation comes as the government faces widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures in the Mumbai terrorist attacks that left 172 people dead and 239 injured.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency, was expected to meet Tuesday with top security aides.

Already, the country's top law enforcement official has resigned and two top state officials have offered to quit amid growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.

Teams from the FBI and Britain's Scotland Yard met Monday with top Indian police as they prepared to help collect evidence, a police official said.

On Monday, soldiers removed the remaining bodies from the shattered Taj Mahal hotel, where the standoff finally ended Saturday morning. The army had already cleared other siege sites, including the five-star Oberoi hotel and the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group.

India's financial hub returned to normal Monday to some degree, with parents dropping their children off at school and shopkeepers opening for the first time since the attacks, which Indian authorities blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

While the cross-border rhetoric between Pakistan and India has increased since the attacks, both countries — by their often-antagonistic standards — carefully refrained from making statements that could quickly lead to a buildup of troops along their heavily militarized frontier.

In India, Pakistan's high commissioner to the country met with Foreign Ministry officials and was told that "elements from Pakistan" had carried out the attacks, said ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash. His phrasing, though, carefully avoided blaming the Pakistani government.

The commissioner was told that India "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements," Prakash said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will visit India later this week, said the perpetrators of attacks "must be brought to justice."

Pakistan must "follow the evidence wherever it leads," she said during a visit in London. "This is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation, and that's what we expect."

Pakistan has repeatedly insisted it was not behind the attacks. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Monday the gunmen were "non-state actors," and warned against letting their actions lead to greater regional enmity.

"Such a tragic incident must bring opportunity rather than the defeat of a nation," Zardari told Arj television. "We don't think the world's great nations and countries can be held hostage by non-state actors."

Pakistan said its foreign secretary "condemned the barbaric attacks" and again pledged his country's cooperation during a meeting Monday with India's high commissioner in Islamabad.

The sole surviving attacker, Ajmal Qasab, told police that his group trained over about six months in camps operated by Lashkar in Pakistan, learning close-combat techniques, hostage-taking, handling of explosives, satellite navigation, and high-seas survival skills, according to two Indian security officials familiar with the investigation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the details.

Lashkar was banned in Pakistan under pressure from the U.S. in 2002, a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group.

Qasab told investigators the militants hijacked an Indian vessel and killed three crew members, keeping the captain alive long enough to guide them into Mumbai, the two security officials said.

The men, ages 18-28, then came ashore in a dinghy at two different Mumbai areas before slipping into the city in two teams, officials said. The gunmen struck at several sites, including a train station, where they mowed down police and passersby; the Jewish center; and the two luxury hotels, representing the city's wealth and tourism, reportedly seeking out Westerners.

A Muslim cemetery rejected the corpses of the nine dead gunmen and its officials said "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

While some Muslim scholars disagreed with the decision — saying Islam requires a proper burial for every Muslim — the city's other Muslim graveyards are likely to do the same.

The 19 foreigners killed were Americans, Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore and Mexico.

Indian officials said their country would persevere.

"This is a threat to the very idea of India, the very soul of India," said Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the country's top law enforcement official. "Ultimately the idea of India — that is a secular, plural, tolerant and open society — will triumph."

Associated Press writers Ashok Sharma and Ravi Nessman contributed from New Delhi and Asif Shahzad from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Terror in India: Mumbai Under Assault

For the last several months, bombings have rattled the image of an India industriously humming toward prosperity. Beginning about two years ago, they have occured with increasing frequency: about a dozen such attacks have pockmarked India's largest cities, from Delhi and Jaipur to Bangalore and Guwahati. And so when the alarms went out on Wednesday night, it looked like Mumbai (formerly Bombay) was being hit by another one of those attacks. The modus operandi was similar: simultaneous blasts in heavily populated areas. But this time, the attack was different.

Indeed, the assault only seemed to grow in frenzy, scope and intensity as time passed. Less that two hours after the first reports of firings and explosions, which came at about 10 p.m. local time, it soon became clear that instead of just crude bombs left on bicycles, scooters and cars, this attack used the whole arsenal: grenades, AK-47s, rifles and a car bomb in a taxi that exploded on the highway headed to the city's international airport. And unlike previous attacks, which have hit mainly Indians in popular, crowded markets, this one appeared to have targeted foreigners and the posh hotels they frequent. Two of the city's landmark properties — the Oberoi and the Taj Hotel — were under siege. The grand dome of the Taj caught fire, masked in a purple haze, after terrorists set off an explosion on the roof as police closed in on them. About 300 troops, sent in by the central government, have also surrounded the Oberoi.

A British national, a man in his 30s, who was having dinner inside the Oberoi Hotel, one of the city's poshest, told the Times Now television station that two young men — in jeans and t-shirts — came in brandishing AK-47s and rifles, singled out those carrying British and American passports and ordered them to the roof. "We went on the 18th floor, it became very smoky, we escaped. Just two of us," said the British man, who was not identified. As of 2 a.m. local time, several of the hostages were still being held, with dozens of Indian commandos surrounding the hotel.

A member of Parliament, Krishna Das, who was interviewed from inside the Taj Hotel, reported that two men also entered that hotel's restaurant and started firing, but did not take any hostages. As of 2 a.m., he said about 200 people, including women and children, were still inside the hotel without news of the mayhem unfolding around the city. Meanwhile, bombs have been reported in at least seven sites in Mumbai, with 87 people so far reported killed and nearly 200 injured. At least two Mumbai police officers, who went into one of the hotels to confront the terrorists, were killed. Two of the suspects have also been killed by police. It is not yet clear how many attackers were involved in the assault.

The attacks come at a moment when Mumbai has become a communal tinderbox and terrorism has become one of the biggest political issues in the country. The ruling Congress Party has drawn flak for allegedly failing to take a strong line on terrorism, but the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading opposition party at the center, have also been targeted.

Late last month, 10 arrests unearthed what appeared to be a possible Hindu extremist terror network, with ties to the BJP. But, for the most part, security agencies and analysts have blamed jihadi groups for the recent terror attacks. And the simultaneous bomb blasts on Wednesday — similar to previous radical Islamist attacks — immediately led most observers to suspect the jihadis once again. For years, India blamed Pakistan's intelligence services for terror attacks; then the usual suspects became the Harkat ul Jihad Islamia (based in Bangladesh) and Students Islamic Movement of India, a group that has been banned. This summer, a new group emerged, Indian Mujahideen, claiming responsibility via e-mail for several attacks and stressing that their members and grievances were homegrown. A group called Deccan Mujahideen, previously unknown, has also sent an e-mail claiming responsibility for Wednesday's attacks. That claim cannot yet be confirmed.

In 1993, Mumbai was hit by a series of bombs that killed nearly 300 people. Those were allegedly detonated at the behest of local gangsters in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence by India's majority Hindus. Those gangsters, including Dawood Ibrahim, are now believed to have escaped India and to be living in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

As the debate over terror continues, various parties have been trading blame. The BJP has accused the Congress of cooking up charges against the arrested Hindu right-wingers, while the Congress has been accusing the BJP of playing a double-game of pointing fingers at the Congress while lending a hand to Hindu-fundamentalist terrorists. Mumbai has been a focus of the tension between the parties, as several of the so-called "Hindu terror" arrests have taken place in or near the city. Perhaps the size and scale of this most recent attack will force the country's political leaders to finally push through a long-shelved proposal to co-ordinate intelligence on terror incidents between the states and prevent a repeat of Wednesday's bloody spectacle. With reporting by Madhur Singh/New Delhi

Thailand's Political Crisis Becomes a Global One

With a demure smile and a garland of jasmine, Thailand has always welcomed the world. China and Japan may have screened themselves off for centuries, but the ancient kingdom of Siam, as Thailand was once known, thrived on trade and tourism. Even today, the country depends on visitors lured by golden spires and white-sand beaches.

But on Nov. 25, Thailand abandoned its traditional hospitality when antigovernment agitators swarmed Bangkok's international airport, grounding one of Asia's busiest air hubs. "Basically, we are hostages," said Irish tourist Dermuid McAnoy, expressing almost as much frustration toward the protesters as toward airline staff, who seemed to melt away as soon as the crowds armed with bamboo sticks and iron bars appeared. "Yes, we can leave, but we have no place to go."(See pictures from the Thai protests.)

Thailand's airport takeover marked an ominous turning point in a months-long political battle that has morphed from sideshow farce to center-stage emergency. "When you close down the gateway to the country, then you have reached the point of a national crisis," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a national-security expert at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "In fact, because this now affects Thailand's connection to the wider world, it is becoming an international crisis."

The yellow-clad demonstrators call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). But they represent neither the majority of Thai people nor universal democratic values. Their mission is to erase from government any influence of billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as Prime Minister in a 2006 army coup. Although the telecom tycoon is beloved by many poor Thais who once gave him a record electoral mandate, the urban middle class, which forms the bedrock of the PAD, accuses Thaksin of being a power-hungry strongman. In October, the former P.M. was sentenced in absentia to two years' imprisonment for a conflict of interest conviction. Several other corruption cases against him are working through the Thai courts. (Thaksin maintains he is innocent of all alleged crimes.)

Even from self-imposed exile overseas, Thaksin casts a long shadow. Current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat may be a soft-spoken judicial expert, but he also happens to be Thaksin's former brother-in-law. Since August, the PAD has besieged Somchai's offices, forcing him to set up a makeshift administration headquarters in the VIP lounge of Bangkok's old airfield. On Nov. 24, the PAD upped the ante, shutting down Thailand's parliament and later overwhelming the old air terminal. Somchai's spokespeople have assured the public that policy-making is going on from a "secret location."

But a government literally on the run is clearly not an effective one. Parts of the Thai capital have been convulsed by gunfire and small-scale explosives. Over the past couple of months, several people, mostly PAD footsoldiers, have been killed in political street violence.

Mayhem is just what the opposition alliance craves. PAD leaders are hoping that the military, which has masterminded 18 coups since Thailand's absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932, will intervene again to contain anarchy and set up a new, Thaksin-free regime. But shortly after the air terminal takeover, the army publicly quashed putsch rumors and called for the PAD to leave the airport. (Army chief Anupong Paochinda did, however, urge Somchai to "return the power to the people" by calling fresh elections.) The military's reluctance to let tanks roll on the streets presumably derives from the fact that its last political interference didn't pan out. True, Thaksin — a nemesis of the army in part because his showy, autocratic style was perceived as threatening the influence of Thailand's beloved King — was removed from office. But post-coup elections last year brought to power a party dominated by acolytes of the ousted Premier. In essence, Thailand in late 2008 is back to where it was two years ago: divided and rudderless.

The PAD's provocative actions are alienating some Thais, even erstwhile supporters who fear that the ongoing crisis is derailing what once was one of the region's most promising economies. With foreign investors and tourists (who bring in some $16 billion a year) spooked by the political instability and Thailand's manufacturing base bracing itself for a drop in global export demand, national growth forecasts for 2009 hover at a bleak 3%.

Thailand's economy aside, the PAD's fundamental flaw is that it wants to blow things up without having articulated how it will put things back together again. Opposition leaders promise to bring a so-called "new politics" to Thailand. But what that means isn't clear, apart from trying to circumvent the problem of rampant vote-buying by replacing the one-person-one-vote system with a largely appointed parliament. Doing so would ensure that the electorate's pesky habit of returning pro-Thaksin elements to office would cease. But Thailand's reputation as a stable, democratic oasis in Asia would take a body blow.

For his part, Thaksin isn't basking in retirement. Although he vowed to stick to golf, shopping and other non-political pursuits, the former Premier has been phoning in from overseas to rouse his supporters. Earlier this month, he unveiled his new think-tank called Building a Better Future Foundation. In half-page advertisements in international newspapers, Thaksin exhorted readers: "Are you one of Asia's best talents? Join me."

It's not clear what Thaksin wants to do with this "group of rising stars." But he and his supporters will need a deep bench if they are to continue dominating Thai politics. In the coming weeks, the lead party in Thailand's ruling coalition could be dissolved by the Constitutional Court because of an electoral-fraud conviction. If that happens, Somchai and other top party executives will be barred from politics, just as Thaksin and his top cohorts were legally excluded from office last year. Lower-echelon Thaksin stalwarts would have to reconstitute themselves as a proxy party. Still, support from rural voters probably would ensure another victory for the pro-Thaksin camp — much to the disgust of the PAD.

Back at the Bangkok airport, PAD executive Puchong Tirawatana continued to stoke antigovernment ire. "This is all because of one man, Thaksin Shinawatra," he said, as a yellow-hued sea of protesters armed with plastic hand-clappers milled around near him. "[Thaksin is] a selfish criminal who is willing to destroy the country for his own personal gain. I'm really worried that violence will increase and the country will be in a civil war." Then, in a marked change of tone, Puchong apologized for the siege that had stranded thousands of tourists in an airport whose Thai name, Suvarnabhumi, or "golden land," seemed particularly inappropriate at that moment. "We don't want to inconvenience people," Puchong said. But such a sentiment probably comes too late. Even when Thailand re-opens its doors, the world may not be interested in returning too soon.