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India and Pakistan Respond to Mumbai Attacks

After a wave of coordinated terrorist attacks turned parts of Mumbai's financial district into a combat zone, officials in New Delhi, India, and Islamabad, Pakistan, grapple with the political and diplomatic fallout of India's deadliest terror attack in 15 years.

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In interviews, several government officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said they felt helpless about the state of affairs in Pakistan. They said the government in Pakistan may not have the power necessary to rein in hostile extremist groups.

"Who do we talk to? Who is in control in Pakistan? They have a government, but how relevant is it in controlling the terror groups there?" a senior official said.

"If we go back to business-as-usual with Pakistan, it would be a grave mistake," said Kanwal Sibal, a former diplomat and an analyst. "But, unfortunately, all the Western nations that are extending verbal support to us today are the ones who will also put pressure on India to resume dialogue and will not support us if we take tough action."

As India weighs the political and diplomatic consequences of the assault on Mumbai, officials and political observers say Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faces constraints in selecting India's response. Singh is nearing the end of his five-year term and has little time to shake off the prevailing perception that his government has failed to tackle the threat of terrorism. A wave of bomb blasts has ripped through several Indian cities since May, killing about 260 people and injuring hundreds.

The public call for concerted action has come to a head in the past four days as citizens have protested on street corners, launched text-message campaigns and held candlelight vigils. "The government is on trial like never before," said Mahesh Rangarajan, an independent political analyst and columnist. "There is a feeling among the middle class that our politicians have failed us miserably. They want a leadership that will respond to a brick with a rock."

Reports from New Delhi and Mumbai in recent days have indicated that the government had information about the likelihood of an attack from the sea and that there had been directives to boost coastal security. On Saturday, the special secretary of internal security, M.L. Kumawat, said there was a recent advisory to the coast guard about infiltration by sea. On Sunday, Mumbai's fishermen's union said it had told the city police recently about its suspicions that explosives were being smuggled in by boat.

There were also indications Sunday that the government's response to the attacks was slow: The Times of India reported that it took nearly 10 hours to get commandos into position.

In Washington, U.S. officials would not directly address a report that American intelligence may have passed along warnings about an impending attack. Two senior officials with access to sensitive intelligence files would neither confirm nor deny the claim, though one pointed out that local Indian officials have acknowledged being told to take precautions hours before the attackers struck.

"If any information had been received, we would have certainly passed it on," said a counterterrorism official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In a televised interview, the chairman of the chain that includes the Taj hotel said his company had increased security after being warned of a possible attack. But security officials in Maharashtra state said at a news conference in Mumbai that they had received no specific warnings.

U.S. officials also said they saw no reason to question New Delhi's assertion that the attackers appear to have been linked to Lashkar-i-Taiba. "What has been learned so far from this investigation does point in the direction of Kashmir," the counterterrorism official said. He said analysts were being cautious while awaiting more information from India's investigation, including its interrogation of a captured attacker.

Some private security analysts said they worry that Pakistan-India relations may be headed toward their worst crisis since 2001, when the two countries mobilized troops along the border, prompting fears of a nuclear exchange. Then, U.S. intervention helped to defuse the crisis. But this time, the United States is preoccupied with two wars and an economic meltdown, said Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis for Stratfor, a private intelligence company.

"The domestic politics of India, Pakistan and the United States are leading up to an inevitable flare-up on the Indo-Pakistani border," Bokhari said. "In cases like this, the preferences of policymakers matter little. Each country is getting locked into place, and the logic appears to be pointing to a crisis."

At a meeting of all major political parties in New Delhi on Sunday evening, Singh promised that India will set up a federal investigative agency, strengthen maritime and air security, and establish four more hubs for its commando force, called the National Security Guards, which battled the assailants in Mumbai.

Analysts say India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, known as the BJP, is likely to benefit politically from the Mumbai attacks by highlighting Singh's less-than-resolute response. The party advocates a tough anti-terrorism law that Singh's government, which relies on Muslim votes, has been reluctant to pass for fear that it will be abused to unfairly target Muslims.

"It is time for unilateral action against the training camps in Pakistan," said Yashwant Sinha, a senior leader with the BJP. "If the U.S. can go into Afghanistan to punish the Taliban and chase Osama bin Laden, why should India hesitate?"

Correspondent Emily Wax in Mumbai and staff writer Joby Warrick in Washington contributed to this report.