Investigators said today the militants who attacked Mumbai had months of commando training in Pakistan, adding to rising tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours as recriminations mounted in India.
The fallout prompted a second top politician from India's ruling Congress party to resign, amid growing anger at intelligence failures that many Indians believe allowed ten Islamist gunmen to kill 183 people and besiege India's financial capital for three days.
The attacks, which struck Mumbai's two best-known luxury hotels and other landmarks in the city of 18 million, are a major setback for improving ties between India and Pakistan.
The White House said US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice would visit India on Wednesday, underscoring the seriousness with which Washington viewed the attacks and the potential threat they had to regional stability.
"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 (from Pakistan)," Ms Rice told reporters travelling with her to London today.
Two senior investigators told Reuters on condition of anonymity that evidence from the interrogation of Azam Amir Kasav, the only gunmen of the 10 captured alive, clearly showed that Pakistani militants had a hand in the attack.
The clean-shaven, 21-year-old with fluent English was photographed during the attack wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with the Versace logo. He has said his team took orders from "their command in Pakistan", police officials said.
The training was organised by the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, and conducted by a former member of the Pakistani army, a police officer close to the interrogation said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak.
"They underwent training in several phases, which included training in handling weapons, bomb making, survival strategies, survival in a marine environment and even dietary habits," another senior officer said.
The Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba made its name fighting Indian rule in Kashmir but was also blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 that brought the nuclear-armed neighbours close to war.
Lashkar had close links to Pakistan's military spy agency in the past, security experts say, although the government in Islamabad insists it too is fighting the group and other Islamist extremists based on its soil.
New Delhi has not accused Islamabad's civilian government of involvement but has expressed deep frustration that its neighbour has been unable or unwilling to prevent militants using its soil to attack Indian cities.
Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks, saying militants could precipitate a war, the
Financial Timesreported today. "Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Mr Zardari.
New Delhi said yesterday it was raising security to a "war level" and had no doubt of a Pakistani link.
In an apparent attempt to deflect the blame, intelligence agencies told TV channels they had repeatedly warned of an imminent attack on Mumbai by sea. But police and coastguard officials denied receiving any actionable intelligence.
As anger mounted, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, offered to resign. Vilasrao Deshmukh, a member of the ruling Congress party, could follow his deputy, state home minister R. R. Patil, out the door.
Indian home minister Shivraj Patil also stepped down yesterday, as prime minister Manmohan Singh announced an overhaul of the nation's counter-terrorism capabilities.
Reuters