A previously unknown Muslim group called Deccan Mujahideen  has claimed responsibility for the attacks that killed more than 170 people. But Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman, now in custody, was from Pakistan. 

A black inflatable lifeboat equipped with a brand new Yamaha outboard motor threaded its way among the small, wooden fishing boats at anchor and pulled up to the concrete pier.  Ten men, all apparently in their early 20s, jumped out. They stripped off orange windbreakers to reveal T-shirts and blue jeans. Then they began hoisting large, heavy backpacks out of the boat and onto their shoulders, each taking care to claim the pack assigned to him.  They landed not long after nightfall on the Mumbai beach, a semi-isolated stretch of sand and stone where fisherman bring in their boats during the daytime. From there, it was less than a 15-minutes walk to their major targets.  Unconfirmed local news reports suggested other militants had embedded themselves in Mumbai days before the attacks. Investigations were ongoing Saturday night. In any event, the synchronized assaults suggested a high level of training and preparation.  The Times of India newspaper reported on Friday that the Coast Guard had found an Indian fishing trawler, the Kuber, that disappeared on Nov. 14. The Kuber may have been used as a so-called mother ship to transport inflatable rafts within range of South Mumbai

MUMBAI, India – 9:21 p.m. Wednesday, Two young men walk casually through Mumbai's main railway station, a very bustling area where many vendors sell everything from fast food to newspapers as workers head home late in the day. One wears khaki cargo pants and a blue T-shirt. A pair of small knapsacks are slung over a shoulder. He looks like a college kid.  They are, says a photographer who follows them on part of their grim journey, "backpackers with assault rifles."  The two and other death squads working in pairs are to wreak carnage in landmark after landmark across Mumbai over the next three days, creating panic in this normally unflappable city and killing at least 174 people, according to revised government estimates.

They were 10 gunmen, well-trained and armed with assault rifles and grenades, officials say. They had scouted their targets ahead of time. They knew the hallways and the basements. They even carried bags of almonds for energy. Police say they were Muslim extremists from Pakistan, and may be tied to India's long-running insurgency in the disputed, largely Muslim, Himalayan region of Kashmir

The group fanned out across the city, hitting 10 spots in two hours. They chose some of the best-known landmarks, many popular with foreigners and the city's elite. Many of the attacks ended in minutes. But at two luxury hotels and a Jewish center they dug in, fending off hundreds of commandos for days.

The Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India, temporarily increased security after being warned of a possible terrorist attack, the chairman of the company that owns the hotel said Saturday.  But Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said those measures, which were eased shortly before this week's terror attacks, could not have prevented gunmen from entering the hotel.  He went on to state that every detail of the attack appeared to be plan.  They knew their targets very well  However, Tata said the attackers did not enter through the entrance that has a metal detector. Instead, they came in a back entrance, he said.

"They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements are in the front," he said. "They planned everything," he said of the attackers. "I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen."  Tata said that not even the army or commandoes who ultimately took over the offensive were prepared for the level of organization and execution that the attackers seemed to have put into their plan. "They seemed to know [the hotel] in the night or in the daytime," he said of the attackers. "They seemed to have planned their moves quite well, and there seem to have been a lot of pre-planning."

At the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the train station that appears to have been the first location hit, a barrage of bullets left the floor of the main hall quickly littered with bodies and pools of blood. At the Leopold Cafe, a chic restaurant popular with Westerners and wealthy Indians and famous for sidewalk dining, a cluster of gunmen mowed down diners.

At the popular Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the assailants poured heavy fire into restaurant guests on the ground floors, then moved upstairs to round up guests as hostages. And at a range of other locations, from a movie theater to a hospital to a police station, the attackers opened fire on anyone in their path, frequently throwing grenades as well for maximum damage.

Lashkar-i-tayyaba, the group accused by India of organizing the Mumbai attacks, was formed in 1991 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, mainly to recruit and train volunteers to fight the jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan and the Indian-administered Kashmir region.  Members of the group, known as the LT, have a track record of carrying out attacks in India, prompting calls from New Delhi for Pakistan to crack down on its operations. The LT is also known to have had past links with the ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency.

The LT's sponsors, notably its founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a Pakistani cleric, are followers of the Ahle Hadith Sunni tradition of Islam, which bears close resemblance to the Wahabi Sunni traditions practiced in Saudi Arabia.  In 2002, LT was banned by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former president, following Pakistan's decision to join the US-led "war on terror". The ban prompted the LT to move its volunteers from its centre near Lahore. Intelligence officials say members are believed to have migrated to Afghanistan's border region near Pakistan.