India Gives Info Tying Mumbai Gunmen to Pakistan

In this photo composite of five of the nine suspected Islamic militants killed during last month's...

In this photo composite of five of the nine suspected Islamic militants killed during last month's attack on Mumbai are shown in a release by Indian police in Mumbai, India, today. Police have identified the militants as clockwise from top left, Bada Abdul Rahman, Abdul Rehaman Chota, Babar Imaran alias Abu Akasha, Nasir alias Abu Umar, and Isamal Khan. Photos of the other suspects are not included because their bodies are too badly burned.

(ABC News Photo Composite/AP Photos)

Police released names and photographs of suspected Islamic militants who staged the bloody three-day siege of Mumbai and said they uncovered new details about the gunmen — including hometowns in Pakistan.

The new information, if confirmed, would bolster India's claim that the attack was launched from Pakistan and was released Tuesday as the Pakistani government announced more arrests in raids on Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group that India blames for the assault on its financial capital.

Indian officials maintained a skeptical silence about the reported crackdown and arrest of an alleged mastermind of the Mumbai assault, which killed 171 people, raised fears of war between the nuclear-armed neighbors and eroded U.S. hopes for a regional push against al-Qaida and other extremists.

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The U.S., maintaining its focus on the region, was to send Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to New Delhi later this week to discuss fallout from the attacks and Pakistan's response, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited New Delhi and Islamabad last week.

Mumbai's chief police investigator, Rakesh Maria, showed photographs of eight of the nine slain attackers — some from identity cards, but three were gruesome pictures of maimed faces. The body of the ninth was too badly burned, he said. The 10th gunman, previously identified as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was captured alive.

Maria said all 10 attackers were from Pakistan, most of them from Punjab province, and were between the ages of 20 and 28. He did not say how police had tracked down their hometowns, although they have been interrogating the lone surviving gunman.

The attackers, who apparently landed by boat on the Mumbai coast the night of Nov. 26, were led by Ismail Khan, 25, Maria said, describing him as a battle-hardened Lashkar veteran. The picture released shows a broad-shouldered man with a square, determined face.