India demands Pakistan take action on Mumbai attacks - Action News
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India demands Pakistan take action on Mumbai attacks

Schools and businesses reopened in Mumbai on Monday as authorities finished removing bodies from the Taj Mahal Hotel following last week's deadly attacks.

Indiais calling for Pakistan to take "strong action" against thosewho were behind last week's deadly attacksin Mumbai.

Pakistan's high commissionerto India has been summoned and toldthat "elements from Pakistan" had carried out the attacks, foreign ministryspokesman Vishnu Prakashtold reporters on Monday.

Prakash saidthehigh commissioner was told India "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements."

The attacks in India's financial capital left at least 172 people dead, including two Canadians, Dr. Michael Moss and his partner, Elizabeth Russell, both of Montreal.

Schools and businesses reopened in Mumbai on Monday as authoritiesfinished removing bodies from the Taj Mahal Hotel.

The hotel, one of 10 sites targeted by suspected Islamist militants, is the final site of the 60-hour siege to be cleared by security forces, who had beensearching the facility for any remaining booby traps and bodies.

"We were apprehensive about more bodies being found. But this is not likely all rooms in the Taj have been opened and checked," said Maharashtra state government spokesman Bhushan Gagrani.

PM promises more security

The army had already cleared other sites, including the five-star TridentOberoi hotel and the Mumbai headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group.

Indian naval officials said the militants came by boat from the Pakistani port of Karachi. According to one Indian intelligence official, who did not elaborate, the militants were receiving calls from outside the country during the siege.

Thesiege has raised questions about India's preparedness for such attacks. The city is not equipped with a SWAT team, and authorities had to call in the National Security Guards, based outside of New Delhi.It took the commandos nearly 10 hours to reach the scene.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil, India's top security official, offered his resignation Sunday, saying he took "moral responsibility" for the violence.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh haspromised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency.

Officials say the only gunman captured by police told authorities he belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said Sunday.

Rice to visit India

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for the attacks, saying militants could precipitate a war, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" Zardari told the newspaper.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,whois cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week, said Pakistan must provide complete co-operation.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and co-operation, and that's what we expect."

On Monday, Indian investigators said the militants who launched the attack underwent months of commando training in Pakistan, Reuters reported.

With files from the Associated Press