The Indian Government was deeply shaken by this as a result a number of people lost their jobs, others volunteered for the chopping block.
Mumbai state head offers to quit
The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra has offered to resign amid criticism of the handling of the Mumbai attacks.
Vilasrao Deshmukh said he was awaiting a Congress party decision. His deputy, RR Patil, has already resigned.
Correspondents say there are calls for more resignations amid questions over the response to the attacks, and whether all the gunmen have been found.
Attackers targeted multiple locations from Wednesday, killing at least 172.
On Monday, Mumbai began to return to normal with markets and schools open and heavy traffic on the streets.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opened cross-party talks on setting up a federal agency of investigation after the attacks.
The attacks have increased tensions with Pakistan after allegations that the gunmen had Pakistani links.
See a detailed map of the area
Islamabad denies any involvement, but India's Deputy Home Minister Shakeel Ahmad told the BBC it was "very clearly established" that all the attackers had been from Pakistan.
Indian Minister of State of External Affairs Anand Sharma described the attacks as a "grave setback" to the normalisation of relations with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to co-operate.
"I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that is what we expect," she said during a visit to London.
'Moral responsibility'
Mr Deshmukh told a press conference on Monday: "I have offered to resign. If the responsibility of the attacks is on the chief minister, then I will go."
CAPTURED GUNMAN
Azam Amir Qasab
Suspect named as Azam Amir Qasab
21 years old, fluent English speaker
Told police he is from Faridkot village, in Pakistan's Punjab province
Said the attackers took orders from handlers in Pakistan
Muslims refuse to bury militants
Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned on Sunday, saying he took "moral responsibility".
His successor, Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, said he was "disinclined" to take the post but had done so to "answer the call of duty".
The BBC's David Loyn in Delhi says the resignations are not likely to be the last, with public anger now of a different order to what it has been during previous terrorist incidents.
Our correspondent says the latest revelation, in police reports, that personal belongings of 15 men were found aboard an abandoned ship from which the attacks were launched has raised questions as to whether all the gunmen have been found.
Only 10 militants have been identified, one of them captured alive. Quoted by a private TV channel, survivor Azam Amir Qasab apparently confirmed that there were 15 attackers.
How Mumbai attacks unfolded
Questions have been asked about India's failure to pre-empt the attacks, and the time taken to eliminate the gunmen.
A report in the Hindustani Times newspaper said a militant from the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Toiba arrested and questioned in February told intelligence services he had inspected the five-star Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi-Trident hotels, which were among targets attacked last week, and several other buildings in December 2007.
Quoted by his interrogator, the militant said he had passed on information to the group's operational commander. Lashkar-e-Toiba has denied involvement in the attacks.
Also, Reuters news agency quoted Damodar Tandel, head of Maharashtra's main fishermen's union, as saying he had warned the government about attempts to bring RDX explosives to Mumbai by sea but no-one acted on the information.
I looked back to see the waiter who was serving me getting hit by a bullet
Shivaji Mukherjee
Mumbai attack survivor
Eyewitness: Mumbai survivors
The violence which began on Wednesday night finally ended on Saturday morning, when Indian troops killed the last of the gunmen at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
"I have gone by my conscience and put in my papers," Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil was quoted by news agency Press Trust of India as saying.
Public anger has been building up against Mr Patil ever since media reports that he made light of the terror attack by saying that such "minor incidents do happen in big cities".
Mumbai protests
On Sunday, Prime Minister Singh held a cross-party meeting in Delhi.
Indian prime minister on anti-terror plans
Mr Singh was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying he planned to increase the size and strength of the country's anti-terrorist forces.
While the vast majority of victims were Indians, at least 22 foreigners are known to have died, including victims from Israel, the US, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy, Singapore, Thailand and France. One Briton, Andreas Liveras, was also killed.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Mumbai on Sunday to protest at the perceived government failures.
Police continued on Sunday to sift through the debris in the Taj hotel.
They are also questioning the one attacker who was captured alive to try to establish who masterminded the assault.
As I understand it, and my understanding is not anywhere near complete Home Minister is equalivent to our Department of the Interior in some ways but more broad in it's reach. Basically it's like if one of the members of the President's Cabinet had to resign in the US.
Meanwhile Political infighting is ramping up.
Time
The siege of Mumbai may be over, but the political casualty count is mounting. As senior ministers resign their posts in the face of public outrage over what many see as the authorities' inability to protect the country from terrorist attacks, India's political parties are girding themselves for an election year that promises a bruising battle over security. The local media may have branded the storming of some of Mumbai's most iconic sites as "India's 9/11," but the nonpartisan unity displayed by U.S. politicians in the wake of the 2001 attacks is nowhere to be seen in India's political arena. And Indian TV is blaring a chorus of public anger and recrimination, much of it directed at the country's bickering political classes.
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Sunday's resignation by Home Minister Shivraj Patil — who was already under pressure over the series of bombings that hit India's cities earlier this year — was followed by that of R.R. Patil, Home Minister of Maharasthra, the state of which Mumbai is the capital. R.R. Patil had been widely denounced for telling reporters on Saturday that the attacks were a "small incident that could happen in big cities." The state's Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, was next in the firing line, lambasted on television and even by fellow politicians for insensitivity after he was seen blithely touring the burned Taj Mahal hotel with a movie director. Deshmukh tendered his resignation to the ruling Congress Party, with which he is affiliated, and will likely be replaced this week. More heads are expected to roll in the coming days. (See pictures of Mumbai the morning after the siege.)
But sacrificing a handful of top officials may not save the Congress Party and its allies from a drubbing at the state polls. The opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has leaped at the opportunity to leverage the threat of Islamist terrorism and government security failures to its advantage as voters prepare to go to the polls in key state elections later this month. Just days after the terrorists occupied ritzy hotels and killed some 195 people, the BJP printed posters in New Delhi proclaiming itself to be the party that would have prevented such attacks. The turnout for state polls in New Delhi on Nov. 29 was considerably higher than expected. When India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, chaired an all-party crisis meeting this weekend to discuss the nation's security situation, his direct rival in the BJP, the 82-year-old L.K. Advani, failed to show up because he had duties campaigning in the western state of Rajasthan.
Advani's move drew criticism from India's press, but the Congress Party may yet suffer. Results in New Delhi are awaited, while more elections follow later this week in Rajasthan and the vast central state of Madhya Pradesh. Defeats for the ruling party now would augur poorly for general elections, to be held next May. "We may take a beating," says Congress Member of Parliament Milind Deora, who represents the affluent South Mumbai constituency, which bore the brunt of the terrorist attacks last week. The ruling party replaced outgoing Home Minister Patil with the much-respected Finance Minister P. Chidambaran. But like the government's proposal on Monday to recruit 500 new commandos to an élite counterterrorism unit, the reshuffle seems a little too late.
Still, despite the BJP's rush to seek political advantage from the government's failings in Mumbai, it remains unclear how much traction the opposition party and its allies can gain. During their last term in power, some of the worst religious riots India has ever experienced occurred in the state of Gujarat in 2002, leaving thousands dead. A year before that, an audacious terrorist attack had seen MPs come under fire inside India's Parliament building. Some of the BJP's right-wing allies, such as the Shiv Sena, an influential Hindu-nationalist party in Mumbai, have a reputation for unleashing thuggery as standard political practice and, until last week, the specter of "Hindu terror" had been in national headlines following explicit threats by nationalist leaders and revelations that Hindu extremists had been behind a wave of terrorist attacks initially blamed on Muslims. "What would they have done had they been in power [during last week's attacks]?" asks MP Deora. The BJP reaction, he suspects, could have fanned religious extremism and deepened inter-communal hostility in the country, further imperiling security.
"Everyone is smart enough to know the BJP didn't exactly cover itself in glory when it was in power," says Manoj Joshi, a prominent journalist. If they benefit from the situation, reckons political analyst Jyotirmaya Sharma, "it will not be because [the BJP] has done something right, but because the Congress has done everything wrong."
The prevailing mood suggests that both parties may be on slippery ground in a country frayed by the ravages of terrorism. The slogan for NDTV's round-the-clock coverage declares "Enough Is Enough," and many see that message as extending to politicians. When controversial BJP leader Narendra Modi offered monetary compensation to all the families of security personnel killed in action in Mumbai, he was firmly rebuffed by the wife of the city's slain antiterrorism chief Hemant Karkare. When the state of Kerala's Chief Minister, a member of the Congress Party, went to pay his respects to the family of a fallen commando on Sunday, he was barred from entering the house by the soldier's father. These moments of anger convey a growing public sentiment that the security crisis demands an end to the cynical games of Indian politics. "When the anger and hysteria subsides, questions of governance will come to the forefront," says Sharma. "Whoever fails to deliver will have to go."
A terrorist was captured and interrograted. What he had to say was... unsettling.
We were trained by Pak navy: Captured terrorist
Azam Amir, the terrorist who was held by the Mumbai Police, has made some striking revelations regarding the Mumbai terror attacks.
Azam has disclosed that the Pakistan Navy had trained the terrorists in boating and swimming to carry out the attacks in Mumbai. Azam was arrested on Wednesday from Girgaum Chowpatty in an encounter with the police. Ismail Khan, an accomplice of Amir, reportedly died in the gunbattle.
Sources say Azam has also revealed that people from gangster Dawood Ibrahim's gang helped the terrorists from Karachi in organising the attacks.
Reports suggest that the planning for the terror attacks in Mumbai had begun almost a year ago in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. Azam has reportedly told the police that around 20 Pakistan nationals were trained in PoK to carry out the attacks. The training in PoK went on for almost five-and-half months, during which the terrorist were taught the use of sophisticated arms and ammunition.
At the end of the five months training, all terrorists were given a months leave and were ordered to gather in Karachi after the break for training in boating, rowing and swimming by the Pakistan Navy.
They were then handed over some CDs and maps of the Taj and Oberoi hotels. The CDs and maps also had pictures of important rail stations like VT. At the end of this training a batch of 10 terrorists was set off for India via the Indian sea route.
Mumbai Police expects more details will come out during the course of their investigations.
In case you're wondering, this is what we call bad. A nuclear power has just found out that another nuclear power has set up one hell of an attack on it's soil, killing over a hundred of it's citizens.
Wars have happened over less. Did I mention that both powers have a history of hate and struggle?
Course the drums aren't being beat, just yet. So maybe we can avoid all of that, at the moment India is just protesting this and demanding Pakistan explain itself.
India makes protest to Pakistan
India has summoned Pakistan's high commissioner to lodge a formal protest over the attacks in Mumbai.
Indian officials have repeatedly said in recent days there is evidence the militants behind attacks that killed nearly 200 people had Pakistani links.
Islamabad has denied involvement and warned against letting "miscreants" inflame tensions in the region.
India's new home minister has vowed to "respond with determination and resolve" over the crisis.
See a detailed map of the area
At least 188 people were killed - including 22 foreigners - and more than 200 were injured after the attackers opened fire in several locations, including a railway station, a popular restaurant, a hospital, two hotels and a Jewish centre.
The attacks on the two hotels - the once luxurious Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi-Trident - and the Jewish centre resulted in nearly three days of running battles between elite commandos and the gunmen before the sites were secured.
'Avoid blame game'
India's foreign ministry said it had summoned Pakistan's high commissioner.
"He was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan," the ministry said in a statement.
India "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage," the high commissioner was reportedly told.
A spokesman for the Pakistani high commission played down the meeting, saying discussions were held in a "cordial atmosphere".
But there is no doubt India is slowly turning the heat on Pakistan following the attacks, the BBC's India correspondent Sanjoy Majumder says.
Following the attacks, the focus is on the lone gunman who survived and who is now in police custody.
CAPTURED GUNMAN
Undated photo of Azam Amir Qasab in hospital
Suspect named as Azam Amir Qasab
21 years old, fluent English speaker
Told police he is from Faridkot village, in Pakistan's Punjab province
Said the attackers took orders from handlers in Pakistan
Muslims refuse to bury militants
Pakistanis wary of Mumbai claims
In pictures: Mumbai aftermath
According to Indian media reports, Azam Amir Qasab is from Pakistan and linked to the Pakistan-based Kashmiri militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba, or Army of the Pure. The group denies involvement.
India's Deputy Home Minister, Shakeel Ahmad, told the BBC it was "very clearly established" that all the attackers had been from Pakistan - echoing similar comments from other officials in recent days.
Indian Minister of State of External Affairs Anand Sharma called the attacks a "grave setback" to the normalisation of relations with Pakistan.
Pakistan's Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, has said his country "would itself take action against the miscreants if there is any evidence against a Pakistani national".
But he cautioned India against making allegations in the media. "The blame game should be avoided at all costs as (it) may affect the state of relations between the two countries," he said.
The White House says it has heard nothing to suggest the Pakistani government was involved.
"We have been encouraged by the statements by the Pakistanis that they are committed to following this wherever it leads," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "We would expect nothing less of them in this instance."
'Deep shock'
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram vowed to take action over the attacks.
HOW THE ATTACKS HAPPENED
Militants take over trawler at sea, then sail into Mumbai on inflatable dinghies
Militants head to attack locations in four groups by taxi
First attack on railway terminus
More attacks follow on a cafe, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre
How Mumbai attacks unfolded
Victims from all walks of life
"I want to assure the people on behalf of the government that we will respond with determination and resolve to the grave threat posed to the Indian nation," he told reporters.
"I recognise that there is a sense of anguish and deep shock among the people of India. This is a threat to the very idea of India, very soul of India."
The government is facing growing anger over its handling of the attacks and perceived intelligence failures.
Maharashtra state's chief minister on Monday joined his deputy and Mr Chidambaram's predecessor in resigning over the attacks.
According to reports, the personal belongings of 15 men were found aboard an abandoned ship from which the attacks were launched. This has raised questions as to whether all the gunmen have been found.
Only 10 militants have been identified, but, according to a private TV channel, Azam Amir Qasab apparently confirmed there were 15 attackers.
I looked back to see the waiter who was serving me getting hit by a bullet
Shivaji Mukherjee
Mumbai attack survivor
Eyewitness: Mumbai survivors
Questions have also been asked about India's failure to pre-empt the attacks, and the time taken to eliminate the gunmen.
A report in the Hindustani Times newspaper said a militant from Lashkar-e-Toiba arrested and questioned in February told intelligence services he had inspected the five-star Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi-Trident hotels and several other buildings in December 2007.
Quoted by his interrogator, the militant said he had passed on information to the group's operational commander.
Also, Reuters news agency quoted Damodar Tandel, head of Maharashtra's main fishermen's union, as saying he had warned the government about attempts to bring RDX explosives to Mumbai by sea but no-one acted on the information.
Unlike other countries that have been the victims of frequent terrorist attacks, India has no discernible or coherent counter-terrorism strategy that focuses both on the causes of the threat and its prevention, the BBC's defence and security correspondent Rob Watson says.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported to have said he plans to increase the size and strength of the country's anti-terrorist forces.
Pakistan's average Joe on the street response.
I Don't Believe You
Indian media reports detailing Pakistani links to the audacious Mumbai attacks have been met with deep scepticism in Pakistan.
"Why do they always blame us?" said an airline worker in the port city of Karachi, from where some of the gunmen are alleged to have set off for Indian shores.
"Any time something happens in India, they say Pakistan is behind it, but they don't come up with any proof."
A boutique owner agreed. "Everybody's out to get us," he said as his customers expressed fear that Indian agents would retaliate by striking Karachi.
Such blanket dismissals fail to acknowledge Pakistan's history of using Islamist militant groups to fight proxy wars against India in the disputed region of Kashmir.
One of these, Lashkar-i-Taiba, was blamed for the attack on India's parliament in 2001 that brought the two countries to the brink of war.
However, it denied that, as well as any involvement in the Mumbai atrocities ,which lasted three days and left over 170 people dead and hundreds injured.
Indian 'denial'
Whatever the case, Pakistanis say Indian accusations have become reflex actions that don't take changing realities into account.
"It is interesting that Indian security agencies failed to detect such a massive operation during its planning stage, but wasted little time in fixing the blame on some Pakistani group," wrote defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi in the local Daily Times newspaper.
"If they knew who was responsible, why could they not pre-empt it? India needs to face the reality of home-grown radicalism, and realize the futility of blaming Pakistan for its troubles."
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi
Foreign Minister Qureshi had hoped for a "warming" with India
Mr Rizvi expressed a widely held conviction here that India is in denial about its problems with indigenous Islamist groups that have surfaced in recent years - rooted, it's believed, in state discrimination and communal violence against Muslims.
And, say Pakistanis, India has got it wrong before.
The fire-bombing of the Samjhauta Express train between New Delhi and Lahore in February 2007 was first blamed on Pakistan, but later linked to Hindu extremists supported by an Indian army colonel.
'Brisk escalation'
At the official level, both the government and the military have also warned India against jumping to hasty conclusions, but otherwise their responses have differed.
Political leaders have gone out of their way to condemn the attacks and offer "unconditional support" in the investigation, promising to take action if any Pakistani link is established.
A conflict with India is the last thing they want after succeeding the military-led government of retired General Pervez Musharraf last year.
"I'm concerned because I could see forward movement, India warming up to Pakistan, constructive engagement," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the weekend.
"Let us not fool ourselves, the situation is serious when people in India are calling this their 9/11," adding that he hoped the "hiccup" in relations would be overcome soon.
Pakistan's powerful security establishment, however, is more cynical.
Mumbai residents grieve near Nariman House, the scene of one of the battles with gunmen
As India grieves, Pakistan has offered "unconditional support"
Despite a peace process which began in 2004 it sees India as stalling on Kashmir, and it is convinced Delhi's allegations are aimed at trying to discredit Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI).
"The Indians are taking the escalation level up at a very brisk pace," a senior security official said on Saturday.
He too pledged co-operation but said if India began to mobilise troops, Pakistan would respond in kind, even if that meant pulling soldiers away from fighting Taleban and al-Qaeda militants on its border with Afghanistan.
The different attitudes towards India were publicly exposed when political leaders were forced to retract a promise to send the intelligence chief to Delhi.
While President Asif Zardari described this as a "miscommunication," others blamed the government for failing to consult the military before making the unprecedented announcement.
Already the army's been taken aback by overtures to India made by Mr Zardari.
Most recently the president offered no first-use of nuclear weapons, ignoring decades of established policy.
The apparently off-the-cuff remark in an interview with Indian media astonished Pakistanis as much as Indians.
It remains to be seen whether this rift will grow under mounting pressure from India and the US, which fears that souring relations between the two rivals will hinder its attempts to encourage regional co-operation against Islamist militancy in Afghanistan.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
