India Clears Last Mumbai Siege Site

Sisiter Meeta Gohil, green dress and relatives and neighbors mourn as they attend the funeral of...

Sisiter Meeta Gohil, green dress and relatives and neighbors mourn as they attend the funeral of Haresh Gohil, a 16 year old boy who was killed by gunmen near Chabad-Lubavitch center,also known as Nariman House in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008. Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel Saturday, ending a 60-hour rampage through India's financial capital by suspected Islamic militants that killed 195 people and rocked the nation.(AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

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Authorities finished removing bodies from the bullet-and-grenade-scarred Taj Mahal hotel Monday, the final site of the Mumbai siege to be cleared, and said the death toll from the attack stood at 172 killed.

Security forces were scouring the 565 room hotel for booby traps and bodies, and declared the landmark building cleared two days after they killed the last three militants holed up inside following a deadly, three-day rampage in India's financial center.

"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.

The army had already cleared two other sites, the five-star Oberoi hotel and the headquarters of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish Center.

The only gunman captured after the 60-hour terrorist siege of Mumbai said he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said.

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The gunman was one of 10 who paralyzed the city in an attack that killed at least 172 people and wounded 239 and revealed the weakness of India's security apparatus. India's top law enforcement official resigned Sunday, bowing to growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.

The announcement blaming militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, threatened to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Indian officials have been cautious about accusing Pakistan's government of complicity.

Lashkar, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in disputed Kashmir, was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though that group has denied links to the Mumbai attack.

As more details of the response to the attack emerged, a picture formed of woefully unprepared security forces.