Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying he would take "moral responsibility" for the Mumbai attacks.
Patil has been widely criticized even before terrorists stormed hotels and other locations in Mumbai on Wednesday night, beginning a three-day siege that killed at least 183 people. Prime Minister Singh accepted the resignation and immediately named Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to take over the Home Ministry post, according to a source in the prime minster's office.

Singh will add the Finance Ministry to his responsibilities, the source said. N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, a major Indian newspaper said Patil's departure was overdue. "This man has been widely criticized for not being up to it and it was simply impossible that he could stay on after this," Ram said. The criticism of Patil was "that he has been very slow, that they haven't delivered in the promise to improve intelligence."

With general elections mandated by next May "this government is really fighting for its political life," he said. Meanwhile, an Indian official has said the attacks could have been much worse. "We found bullets with them, hand grenades, bombs," R.R. Patil, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, said at a news conference. "Based on our investigation, we believe they had planned to kill 5,000 people."

Indian authorities were also investigating whether some of the attackers may have gotten away, blending into Mumbai's 18 million residents. Another senior official at the news conference pointed to a connection with Pakistan. "Yes, the captured terrorist was Pakistani, as the home minister and others have said," said Vilasrao Deshmukh, chief minister of Maharashtra, where Mumbai is located.

"As far as the others, the accomplices, the investigation, the interrogation is under way and the details will become public very soon." Police and soldiers continued their room-by-room sweep of the Taj Mahal Hotel late Saturday to make sure all trapped guests had been evacuated and no gunmen remained hidden.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari pledged his country's full cooperation with the investigation and vowed to take "the strictest action" if it is found the terrorists were based in Pakistan. Reports quoted investigators probing the attacks as saying they found cell phones and a global navigational device on an abandoned boat floating off the coast of Mumbai.

The television station showed photographs of a phone's log that indicated calls had been placed to Pakistan. The boat, intelligence officials told CNN-IBN, had been hijacked. The captain was found dead, lying face down with his hands bound behind his back. Four crew members were missing. Zardari whose wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated a year ago said he was "as committed as can be" to wiping out the terrorists because they also threaten him and his country.

"They may not be the same individuals, but they are definitely the same forces with the same mindset." Zardari said Pakistan's cooperation with Indian investigators will be present "without any hesitation whatsoever." "As the president of Pakistan, let me assure you, if any evidence points to any individual or group in my part of the country, I shall take the strictest of action in light of the evidence and in front of the world."

Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vowed Saturday to take action against any group within its borders if it is found to be involved with the attacks. "The Indian leadership has not blamed the government of Pakistan; please be very clear on that," he said. "What we have said is, if we have information, if they (India) have evidence, they should share it with us. As far as the government of Pakistan is concerned, terrorism is terrorism and we do not qualify it nor do we differentiate between organizations."