Chief minister offers to resign over Mumbai attacks

On Monday the chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra told sources that he has offered to resign and this comes after his deputy stepped down over the attacks on the state capital Mumbai.

The chief minister said that if he has to take the responsibility of the attacks than he will resign. He said that the final decision is with the high command, referring to the leadership of the ruling congress party. The Mumbai attackers were all from Pakistan according to the country's deputy interior minister. The Deputy minister stopped short of blaming the government in Islamabad for last week's attacks which left more than 170 dead. The comments from Deputy Home Minister Shakeel Ahmad were the strongest yet pointing a finger of blame across the border and now Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, is heading to India in a show of solidarity. Both India and Pakistan are armed with nuclear weapons and they have fought three wars and nearly came to another one over a previous attack on Indian soil. People fear that the latest bloodshed will deepen tensions between the two countries. India's Deputy Home Minister Shakeel AhmadIn told sources that they are not saying that the attack was sponsored by the Pakistan government but did say that Pakistani soil was being used for anti-India activities. Ahmad also said that all of the terrorists who have been killed in the Mumbai attacks were of Pakistani origin. A lone gunman who was also arrested after the attacks and he was also of Pakistani origin. Now that things are slowly getting back to normal the focus has turned to who might be responsible for the brazen grenade and gun assault on two luxury hotels, a hospital, religious centre and other sites. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba are under suspicion. The group is fighting Indian control of the disputed Kashmir and the group was behind the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament in New Delhi which pushed the neighbours to war. Indian officials feel that Pakistan has not fully enforced its official ban on the group, according to Indian media reports who were citing unnamed sources. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the latest bloodshed and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is urging India not to over-react. Pakistan has stressed that India and Pakistan have a common enemy and the country has said that they are fighting its own battle against Islamist insurgents, who have taken their campaign to the heart of the Pakistan capital.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba , who do you think we are fighting?" Zardari told Monday's Financial Times, noting that Pakistan was battling a welter of militant groups along its border with Afghanistan.

The president went on to say that the architects of this calamity in Mumbai have managed to raise the threat on their other border, referring to the frontier with India. Sources said the comment suggested the Mumbai attacks might prompt Pakistan to consider pulling troops away from the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban along the Afghan border and if that was to happen than the United States would not be happy. On Wednesday Rice will arrive in New Delhi to show solidarity with India, according to White House and State Department officials. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that it is a sad fact that India has now experienced this level of terror. McCormack said that Rice and other government officials will be having discussions going forward about cooperating on the war on terror. The assault began on Wednesday evening and at least 172 people were killed and almost 300 were wounded. The assault last 60 hours and witnesses said that some attackers singled out Britons and Americans. Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned on Sunday because he said that he was taking moral responsibility over the attacks. India's intelligence and security agencies have been under heavy criticism for the incident. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that they have had terrorist attacks before but this time it was different because they came with the explicit aim of killing large numbers of innocent civilians, including foreign visitors. About 30 foreigners were killed including two Canadians, two Australians, two French and five Americans.