"In the most public outrage so far, tens of thousands in Mumbai marched near the attacked sites on Wednesday, while similar rallies were held in New Delhi and in the southern technology hubs of Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Speaking in Mumbai on Friday, India’s new home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, admitted that there had been “lapses” in the way India handled the crisis and said his government was trying to “improve the effectiveness of the security systems..”

"Questions raised include why Indian intelligence had no forewarning of the plot, why security was so loose at the sites attacked in Mumbai, and why Indian security forces were so poorly armed — and in some cases so slow to respond.

"Meanwhile, evidence linking the attackers to Pakistan builds. Fresh evidence unearthed by investigators in India has indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Indian and American intelligence officials have already identified a Lashkar operative, who goes by the name Yusuf Muzammil, as a mastermind of the attacks. On Thursday, Indian investigators named one of the most well-known senior figures in Lashkar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

"While Indian officials have pointed a finger directly at Pakistani elements, terrorism experts and some Western officials warned that the emerging sketch of the plotters was still preliminary and could broaden even to include militants within India. India, too, has a long history of antagonism with Pakistan."

And from another report: "A powerful explosion struck a crowded central bazaar in the chaotic city of Peshawar in Pakistan’s northwest on Friday, killing at least 18 people and injuring around eighty, Pakistani television and news agencies reported on Friday.

"According to a Peshawar resident, Rasool Din, who was reached by telephone, the large explosion occurred in a congested area, and rescue operations were being hampered by power failures. Gas pipes had also exploded, making even more difficult the task of dousing the fire caused by the explosion, he said.

"Peshawar has witnessed a series of suicide bombings by Taliban militants in the last few months.

"Last month, gunmen abducted an Iranian diplomat in the city, a day after the assassination of an American aid official there.

The diplomat, Hesmatollah Atharzadeh, was the commercial counselor at the Iranian Consulate, and was leaving his house in a suburb when the gunmen attacked. The police said they suspected that Islamist militants were involved in the killing of the American aid worker, Stephen D. Vance.

"Also last month, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the city’s main stadium after the closing ceremony of interprovincial games, the first such event after a new secular provincial government lifted the ban on sports imposed by a coalition of religious parties.

"In August, a Pakistani Air Force bus was bombed in Peshawar, in an attack that killed 14 people, many of them air force personnel. The Taliban took responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a remote-controlled bomb."