December 01, 2008	Monday	Zilhaj 2, 1429

MUMBAI, Nov 30: India’s traumatised financial capital began limping back to normalcy on Sunday as thousands of residents ventured out hesitantly, visiting friends and relatives and making necessary purchases.

Thousands of curious visitors thronged Colaba and Nariman Point areas in south Mumbai, hoping to catch a glimpse of the destruction wrought by terrorists, who in a span of 60 hours shocked the world, killing about 200 people and injuring over 350.

But even as the two five-star properties were being cleaned up of blood and debris caused by the fierce gun-battles, which broke out on Wednesday night and continued till Saturday morning, a different kind of battle broke out in the corridors of power.

While India’s ineffective and largely ceremonial Home Minister Shivraj Patil was finally eased out of his job, daggers were drawn in Maharashtra, with rivals wanting to script the political demise of Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and the Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil.

While Deshmukh denied on Sunday that the federal intelligence agencies had passed on tips to his government about likely attacks on Mumbai from the sea, security sources here acknowledge that warnings of a largescale assault on the city have been made in the past by intelligence agencies.

In fact, the Taj Mahal Hotel, located opposite the historic Gateway of India, had just a few weeks earlier decided not to allow vehicles to enter the hotel complex. All visitors had to get off on the main road and had to go through metal detectors, as there were fears that terrorists might attack it, especially after the incident at the Marriott in Islamabad.

Intelligence agencies have been grilling Ajmal Amir Qasab, the lone surviving terrorist, who was arrested by the police on Wednesday night, and trying to bare the terrorist plot. According to police sources, Qasab, who claims to be a resident of Faridkot in Pakistan, has named some top operatives of the Lashkar-i-Tayyba as having masterminded the plot.

Mumbai police also claim that the terrorists obtained help from local gangsters and suspect that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates might have been involved in providing logistics here for the terrorists.

Agencies add: Mr Patil said he took ‘moral responsibility’ for the assault by terrorists.

The future of the Pakistan-India peace process now appears in doubt.

“There is a view in the government that India should suspend the peace process and composite dialogue to show that it is not going to take lightly the deadly carnage in Mumbai,” the official news agency PTI quoted unnamed officials as saying.

Sources told PTI “a series of high-level meetings at political and official levels will be taking place in the coming few days to decide what to do”.