Mumbai Attacks Raise Questions on India’s Ability to Combat Terror

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Terror in Mumbai, India. We start with a report on how the militants carried out their attacks. The correspondent is Nick Paton Walsh of Independent Television News.

• NICK PATON WALSH, ITV News Correspondent:

  This is about as close as you could get to the gunmen who've held Mumbai hostage for two days. Behind these curtains, maybe two militants are holding up to three hostages inside the Nariman Jewish Center.

  A rare glimpse of the men behind a raid as brutal as it was daring, gunmen who simply came ashore in boats and backpacks.

  Fishermen here say at least six militants pulled up in a dinghy with an outboard motor. They seemed like students, in T-shirts and jeans, speaking in clean Indian Hindi accents. And they threatened them, "You've not seen anything here." And they told this woman to mind her own business.

• INDIAN CITIZEN (through translator):

  Four of them went that way, and two that way. Before leaving, they shook hands with each other and said, "Good luck."

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  Now, it's here you can get an idea of exactly how brazen this raid must have been. A number of dinghies pulled up to these docks behind me. The gunmen got out and simply walked towards the Taj Palace Hotel. And the question today is, how did they get here and where did they come from?

  Well-armed and prepared, according to the special forces team that later fought them.

• COMMANDO:

  See, I told you, these people were very, very familiar with the hotel layout. And it appeared that they had carried out a survey before when we entered. We found a rucksack or a bag which contained dried fruits for survival, large amount of ammunition, explosives.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  It's been claimed the gunmen had jobs in the hotels and even, according to one Indian minister, that two of them were British-born Pakistanis. While Scotland Yard officers are here investigating, U.K. officials played this down. But one detained gunman is reportedly Pakistani.

• PRANAB MUKHERJEE, Foreign Minister, India (through translator):

  Preliminary evidence indicates that there is some connection between these Mumbai attackers and Pakistan elements. As of now, nothing can be said with certainty about them or from where they came, but evidence indicates that Pakistani elements have been in touch with them.

• NICK PATON WALSH:

  Pakistan denied any association with the attack and will send its intelligence chief here to help investigate.