Investigations into the gunmen that have killed at least 125 people in Bombay were tonight centred on a fishing vessel found adrift off the city's coast with one dead body and a satellite phone aboard.

The possible involvement of a notorious Bombay underworld don was also being probed.

The nationality of the dead man found on the boat is unknown, but one theory being pushed by sources close to India's intelligence service is that the Indian-owned vessel had been hijacked in Pakistani waters and had sailed from Karachi. The calls made by the satellite phone are being analysed.

That theory was fuelled tonight by news that one of three militants arrested for their involvement in the assault on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel has been identified as a Pakistani national by the authorities. The special forces who stormed the hotel said they also found a Mauritian ID card in one of the gunmen's bags. Major General R. K. Hooda, the military chief in charge of the operation to flush out the terrorists, also said the gunmen were of Pakistani.

Analysts said that, by pinning the blame on Pakistan, the leaders of India's fragile goverment may hope to stem a public backlash ahead of a general election that must be held before May.

It is thought that the vessel being inspected was being used by the terrorists before they climbed aboard a smaller boat to land at Colaba, the popular tourist area that suffered the worst attacks. "This is a vital lead," an Indian official said.

Local witnesses said that they saw a small inflatable boat carrying at least eight men, now believed to have been the terrorists, landing at the Badhwar Park area of Colaba just before the first attacks on Wednesday evening. When one local fisherman confronted the men, they levelled their guns at him and said "humko tension hai" (we are feeling very tense).

Today, India again blamed Pakistani-linked "elements" for the deadly attacks, raising the prospect of relations between the two nuclear-powered neighbours deteriorating sharply. Pranab Mukherjee, India's Foreign Minister, said: "Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved."

India's security forces are also investigating the possible involvement of Bombay's most notorious mafia gang in the attacks - the network operated by Dawood Ibrahim, an organised crime boss who ranks among the world's top five most-wanted men and is widely believed to have links with al-Qaeda.

Dr Lakshman, of the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management, said: "The level of local logistical support given to the terrorists suggests the involvement of Dawood Ibrahim's group."

Ibrahim, who is believed to be in exile in the Middle East or Pakistan and has been described by the US as "a global terrorist", is thought to have masterminded the 1993 Bombay bombings, which claimed 250 lives.

The head of D-Company, a feared Bombay-based crime syndicate, he has been linked by US authorities to a massive drug smuggling operation.

The involvement of Ibrahim or parties associated with his network is suspected because of the deep local knowledge displayed by the terrorists. They knew, for instance, that security at the Taj hotel had been dramatically scaled back in recent days. Another theory being checked by the Indian security forces is that at least one terrorist had a job at the Taj.

Security experts have said that the attacks also recalled previous strikes by Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan-based militant group linked to a 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, where terrorists stormed the building with guns and grenades, taking hostages as part of a suicidal mission.

However, they said it was highly unlikely that the higher reaches of Pakiskan's government would have had knowledge of the impending strikes. "The people who carried out these attacks are the enemy of Pakistan government," one said. The Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi condemned the attacks as "barbaric".

In a highly unusual step, the head of the Pakistani military's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has agreed to travel to India to share information, at the request of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, officials in both countries said.

The Indian navy has also detained two other ships, which it believes to be Pakistani-owned and was investigating them. A Panama-owned vessel that had recently docked in Karachi was also being investigated.

The Indian police denied reports that two of the terrorists who had been captured were British. Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor said: "We have found nothing to indicate they were British,"

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