India considers anti-terror body

Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister, has opened cross-party talks on setting up a federal agency of investigation after the Mumbai attacks. He said they were to discuss a new legal framework following the gun and bomb attacks which caused at least 172 deaths in the commercial capital.

Questions have been asked about India’s failure to pre-empt the attacks, and the time taken to eliminate the gunmen. India’s home minister has resigned, saying he took "moral responsibility".

Shivraj Patil’s resignation was accepted by the prime minister but an offer to resign from the national security adviser, MK Narayanan, was turned down.

The resignation has been described as too little, too late and a recognition that India’s security apparatus failed, the BBC’s Adam Mynott reports from Mumbai. The attacks have also increased tensions with Pakistan after allegations that the gunmen had Pakistani links.

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 troops killed the last of the gunmen at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel on Saturday.

Anger in Mumbai

Prime Minister Singh was speaking at the cross-party meeting in Delhi. On the agenda are the creation of the new agency and new anti-terror laws. 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.

As few as 10 militants may have been involved in Wednesday’s assault which saw attacks in multiple locations including two hotels, a major railway station, a hospital and a Jewish centre. 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. Protesters said the authorities should have been more prepared for the attacks, and also questioned whether warnings were ignored and the time it took commandos to reach the scenes of the attacks.

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.