

The US warned India before the Mumbai attacks, a senior Bush administration official said today, fuelling criticism of the Indian government's lack of preparedness.

According to an unnamed official, the US told Indian officials that terrorists appeared to be plotting a water-borne attack on India's financial capital.

Several top Indian officials have resigned after the attacks that claimed at least 172 lives and injured more than 300. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, yesterday became the latest official to offer his resignation over alleged warnings about terrorist activities that were not acted upon.

His deputy, RR Patil, also submitted his resignation after being quoted as downplaying the seriousness of the attacks. Their offers to go followed the resignation of the home minister on Sunday and came amid Indian media reports of a string of intelligence blunders, all of which are adding to an atmosphere that the government and state apparatus cannot cope with the scale and complexity of the security threat facing the country.

India has demanded that Pakistan hand over 20 militants it believes are in the neighbouring country amid fears that relations between the two nations will deteriorate following the Mumbai attacks.

But the Pentagon has seen no signs that Pakistan is preparing to shift troops out of its tribal region near the Afghanistan border due to rising tensions, a US defence official said.

"There are no indications that anything is happening. Nothing has happened or is planned to happen in that vein," the official told Reuters. "It's business as usual."

In India, recriminations after the Mumbai attacks have been rife.

An officer in the elite commando unit that ended the siege has told the Guardian his troops were delayed getting to the scene of the attacks because a plane could not initially be found to take them.

Major Vikram Singh, of the national security guard, said his unit, which is based in Delhi, took 10 hours to reach Mumbai. The NSG, nicknamed the Black Cats, have been feted by the Indian public after ending the siege. The criticism by a serving officer of his government is a sign of the anger politicians are facing after the attacks. Singh told the Guardian the delay may have let the terrorists gain more control of the two hotels and Jewish centre than they otherwise would have had.

Singh, who was speaking outside the Oberoi Trident hotel, said: "We've taken 10 hours to come from Delhi. Initially no one could judge the level of threat."

But the officer said his troops were ready to move 20 minutes after an order to deploy, and believes they were delayed by at least four hours in reaching the scene.

"In 20 minutes we could have started. The aircraft to take us was somewhere else."

Mumbai is 90 minutes by air from Delhi. Singh said an NSG unit should be based outside Delhi including in cities such as Mumbai: "Had we been in Mumbai, 30 minutes would have been enough to start the operation."

In a further sign of anger at India's elite, a senior politician seeking to attend the funeral of a commander killed in the fighting was refused permission by the commander's father.

Away from the recriminations there were signs yesterday that the death toll from the Taj Mahal Palace hotel may be less than feared. So far 23 bodies have been recovered, 19 Indian and four foreigners.

The trustee of a Muslim graveyard in Mumbai said yesterday that it would not bury the dead gunmen, with an official saying they are not true followers of the Islamic faith.

"People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee of the Jamia Masjid Trust, which runs the three-hectare (7.5 acres) Bada Kabrastan graveyard in Mumbai. Meanwhile teams from Scotland Yard and the FBI have arrived to help the investigation. The British team will assist with the forensic investigation.