Hollow victory as more bodies found | Minister: Britons among detained | Actor left for dead then arrested | Comment: India/Pakistan truce is in danger | VIDEO: Journalists flee gunfire | Pakistan is the prime suspect | Graphic: the siege of Bombay | Forces accused of bungling | Rescued boy orphaned | Wealthy owe lives to hotel's heroes | 'Cricketers should go back to Bombay' | VIDEO: Troops storm hideout

Commandos were last night fighting the last gunmen holed up in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Bombay as one of the worst terrorist attacks in India’s history reached its bloody endgame.

The diplomatic fallout was just beginning, however, as India laid the blame for the attacks on Pakistan and an official said that two of the militants were British Pakistanis. British officials said that they were investigating the possibility of such a link but had found no evidence.

India also faced criticism when five Israeli hostages were found dead inside a Jewish centre after a raid by commandos. An Israeli offer of assistance had been turned down.

Almost 36 hours after the attacks began, commandos from the elite Black Cats special forces unit abseiled on to Nariman House, which contains the Jewish centre. Hopes of a swift and successful conclusion to the hostage crisis inside were dashed when three of those being held were killed as the commandos went in with stun grenades and gunfire. Two more died as the soldiers tried to force their way on to the third and fourth floors, according to the commandos’ leader.

Indian police said they had also taken control of the Oberoi hotel, killing two militants and freeing 143 people inside, mostly foreigners.

Their operations were focused last night on the last one or two militants who were moving between floors in the Taj hotel, possibly with hostages.

India blamed Pakistan for the assault on Bombay, also known as Mumbai, in which at least 144 people, including 19 foreigners, died. “Preliminary evidence indicates that elements with links to Pakistan are involved,” Pranab Mukherjee, the Foreign Minister, said. Pakistan rejected the suggestion and agreed to send its intelligence chief to India to share information.

The attacks bore the hallmarks of Pakistan-based militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba or Jaish-e-Mohammed, which were blamed for an attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. Maharashtra’s chief minister said that two of the arrested militants were British Pakistanis, although Gordon Brown said there was no evidence to confirm that. A Conservative MP said he had been given information that at least two of the terrorists had credit cards and other documents that linked them to Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Patrick Mercer also said he had been told that the gunmen were using seized mobile phones and BlackBerries to access British news sites online.

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