Indian Forces Fight to Regain Control of Mumbai

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Terror in India's financial capital. We begin with a report from Jonathan Rugman of Independent Television News.

• JONATHAN RUGMAN:

  Two dozen or so militants seem to be in their early 20s, possibly students, armed with automatic rifles and grenades.

  And one, calling himself Shabdullah, spoke to Indian television today. He was asked what the group's demands were and, after consulting his fellow fighters, said this.

• MILITANT (through translator):

  We demand the release of all Mujahideen put in jails. Then we will release these people. Otherwise, we will destroy this place.

• JONATHAN RUGMAN:

  The fighters say they're called the Deccan Mujahideen, or southern jihadists, and there are unconfirmed reports quoting police sources as saying that one captured militant is from a Pakistani group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

  In 2006, the group, which translates as "Soldiers of the Pure," was blamed for killing more than 200 people on Mumbai trains and railway stations. A radical Islamic student organization was also accused.

  An Islamist attack on India's parliament in 2001 left a dozen people dead and prompted India to send a million troops to the Pakistani border.

  And in his nationwide address today, India's prime minister appeared to point the finger once again at Pakistan.

• MANMOHAN SINGH, Prime Minister, India:

  It is evident that the group which carried out these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country.

  We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts.

• SHERRY REHMAN, Information Minister, Pakistan:

  The government of Pakistan and all responsible officials, as well as the president and the prime minister, have condemned it as the worst kind of terrorist attacks that we have seen. Pakistan is both sorrowful and has condoned with all the victims of such an attack.

• JONATHAN RUGMAN:

  The militants arrived in a series of boats. It's now being investigated whether they left from Karachi in Pakistan.

  And one fighter told a TV station he was angry about Muslims killed in Kashmir, the territory disputed by Pakistan and India.

  Some Indians are calling this their 9/11, but this year perhaps only Iraq has been bombed more often.

  In September, Islamist militants killed 24 in bomb attacks on shopping and leisure targets in Delhi. In July, 52 were reported killed in the bombing of Ahmedabad. Even a hospital treating the wounded was attacked.

  And in May, 67 were killed in the tourist destination of Jaipur in Rajasthan.

  Most recent attacks have been blamed on extremists from the Indian Mujahideen. And it, too, is a major suspect in Mumbai, though in the past it's used bombs rather than guns, and foreign hostages have never been taken on a scale like this before.

  India's prime minister says there are vast gaps in intelligence-gathering in such a large and fractious country.