Intelligence reports foreshadowed attack

MUMBAI, India — India picked up intelligence in recent months that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, an official said today, as the government demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against those behind the deadly rampage.

India demanded that Islamabad hand over about 20 suspected terrorists believed to be living in Pakistan, including India's most-wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged mastermind of 1993 Mumbai bombings.

The United States increased pressure on Pakistan to cooperate in the investigation, while Indian officials lodged a formal diplomatic protest with their South Asian neighbor, demanding strong action against those behind the assault.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to travel to India on Wednesday, said the Bush administration is urging Pakistan to "follow the evidence wherever it leads." She said transparency is crucial to the investigation into the 60-hour siege that left at least 172 dead and nearly 240 wounded in the Indian mega-city of Mumbai.

An official said Indian intelligence had picked up information as recently as September that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets.

The official says India's foreign intelligence agency then relayed the information to domestic-security officials.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to meet today with top security aides as the government faces widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures.

Already, the country's top law-enforcement official has resigned and two top state officials have offered to quit amid growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.

Indian officials summoned Pakistan's ambassador Monday night and told him Pakistani nationals were responsible for the terrorist attacks and they must be punished.

With public anger building against both governments, Indian officials also suggested the planners of the attacks were still at large in Pakistan, and they expected "strong action would be taken" against them. Nine of the 10 men who appear to have carried out the attacks are dead, with the remaining one in custody.

It was not clear whether India had supplied Pakistan with any proof of its claims.

The only known surviving attacker, Ajmal Qasab, told police his group trained for months in camps operated by a banned Pakistani extremist group.

Compiled from The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press