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Yesterday, shortly after dawn, the elite troops launched their final offensive at the Taj Mahal Hotel, mopping up the last of the terrorists as orange flames and black smoke engulfed the landmark 565-room hotel.
'All operations are over. All the terrorists have been killed,' Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor said.
With the end of the brazen attacks, the focus began to shift to who was behind the attacks, the deadliest in India since the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai that killed 257 people.
A sole surviving gunman who was captured has pointed the finger at a Pakistan-based militant group, but it denied any involvement in the attacks.
The victims of the attacks included 26 foreigners from more than 10 nations, including Israel, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.
Some 300 people were also injured in the shooting spree that began last Wednesday evening, when the gunmen attacked 10 sites across Mumbai, trapping more than 600 people in two hotels and a Jewish centre, and holding hundreds of security personnel at bay for 60 hours.
'They were the kind of people with no remorse - anybody and whoever came in front of them, they fired at,' an Indian commando said of the young gunmen.
Officials said the toll from the three days of carnage was likely to rise as more bodies were brought out of the hotels.
Across the city, shock gave way to grief and anger - mostly aimed at neighbouring Pakistan - over the attacks, which local newspapers have started describing as India's own '911'.
'India is under attack. The very idea of India is under attack,' The Hindustan Times wrote. 'Playing the headless chicken is no longer an option.'
Officials believe that just 10 gunmen had taken part in the attack. Commandos reportedly killed nine and captured one alive.
The confession of the captured gunman, a native of Pakistan, showed that months of preparation had gone into the highly organised attack. The terrorists, all trained in marine warfare, had taken several days to travel from Karachi to Mumbai by sea, changing boats several times.
Last Friday, India's Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had blamed 'some elements in Pakistan' for the attacks, raising tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari yesterday warned India against any 'over-reaction', but vowed the 'strictest' action if Pakistani involvement was proved.
Islamabad had earlier promised to send its spy chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha to India to share information and help in investigations, but changed its mind and is now sending a less senior intelligence official instead.
AP, AFP
