To that end, officials insist that they intend to bring those responsible for the attacks to justice, even though they have no idea who that might be. Indeed, they have absolutely no leads whatsoever on the attacks.

Despite having no advance warning of the attacks (apart from some previous reports about something happening in Mumbai) officials say that the lack of intelligence did not amount to an intelligence failure.

The attacks have been seen by many as an attempt to disrupt the peace talks between India and Pakistan, which restarted only last month. The major 2008 Mumbai attacks ended all talks for nearly two years and left India threatening war.

Police have now put several neighborhoods in the city on high alert, setting up checkpoints as the prime minister urged calm.

It is the deadliest terrorist incident in the city since November 2008, when a three day siege killed 166 people. So far there is no indication of responsibility for the latest bombings, and officials have not speculated.

It seems the intent is clear, however. Pakistan and India have recently restarted the peace talks which stalled in 2008, after India blamed Pakistan for the Mumbai strikes, and the new attacks seem aimed at again foiling the talks. A number of militant factions are keen to keep the two nations on a hostile footing.

The new plot, however, involves “credible but non-specific” plans gleened from the interrogation of a suspect being held at Bagram, the US detention center in Afghanistan.

The aim was said to be attacks on “economic or soft” targets, but exactly where or even approximately where is unknown, officials say the attack could be virtually anywhere in Western Europe or North America.

And exactly who seems even more vague, as officials say the “potential operatives” could be European, North African, Pakistani, Turkish, Uzbek, Tajik, or some combination thereof. Which covers a good chunk of the planet’s population.

Officials are also conflicted on exactly how much panic they are trying to cause, insisting there is no “imminent” threat of attack against any one target as near as they can tell, while tying it to Mumbai makes it clear that it is something meant to be massively concerned about.

“It was not just a peripheral role,” Pillai insisted, adding “they were literally controlling and coordinating it from the beginning till the end.”

Pillai said the evidence came from David Headley, an American who pled guilty to a role in conspiring to carrying out the attack. Indian officials have blamed the Lashkar-e Taiba, a Kashmiri separatist group, for the attack.

Though officials have previously tapped retired ISI officials for roles in the attack, today’s comments are the first time a top official has accused Pakistan’s government of a direct role in the attack. In practice the ISI is part of Pakistan’s military, but is almost entirely independent in its operations, with no real oversight.

Upwards of 160 civilians were killed in the Mumbai attacks, which included a multi-day siege on a pair of high profile hotels across the city. The attack brought India and its neighbor Pakistan to the brink of war, and has seriously damaged attempts by the two sides at diplomatic rapprochement. Every discussion since then has centered around the attacks, and Indian demands to hand over suspects.

A lawyer for one of the accused said that all seven have pled not guilty, the trial is scheduled to begin to December 5. The lawyer said that the evidence presented in court did not fit with the charges they face.

The attack and the lack of forthcoming charges has done serious damage to relations between India and Pakistan. The Indian government remains furious that Pakistan freed the detained Hafiz Saeed, who they say was the real mastermind of the attacks. Pakistan insists they have been given no evidence to support that and he is not among the seven charged today.

Over 160 people were killed in the Mumbai attack, a three day siege in which militants captured two major hotels in the city and attacked several other sites. India has blamed the attack on the Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT) and all those charged today are reportedly LeT members. The group has denied any role in the attacks, however.

But the ISI could arguably be considered completely separately from the Pakistani government. After all, it was revealed today, the group gets roughly a third of its funding not from Pakistan but from the US, through covert CIA deals.

Not that American oversight over the group is any more effective, as US officials have repeatedly accused the ISI of complicity or direct involvement in terrorist attacks, including last November’s Mumbai strike. Officials have also said the ISI is directly supporting the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan in its fight against the US. This support allegedly includes direct ISI funding for the insurgency, yet another example of how US money thrown at the region seems to trickle into the pockets of its opponents.

The CIA, however, defended the payments, saying they had more than gotten their money’s worth from the ISI in the form of intelligence in Pakistan’s tribal areas. In addition to this funding, the CIA has also paid tens of millions of dollars to the group as rewards for capturing or killing people on its behalf through a covert program approved by President Bush.

Saeed, whom Indian media has labeled the “mastermind” of the Mumbai terrorist attack, was ordered freed by the Lahore High Court today, ruling his detention unconstitutional and citing lack of evidence to support the charges against him.

The Mumbai attacks, in late November of 2008, killed over a hundred and wounded an enormous number of others. The Indian government blamed a Kashmiri separatist group, the Lashkar-e Taiba for the attacks and demanded Pakistan hand over a number of suspects. The government declined but did arrest several people in connection with the incident.

US officials had been skeptical of the arrests, saying that Pakistan had a history of arresting and later releasing suspects. That seems to have held true in this case, but in the absence of actual evidence of wrongdoing it appears the court gave the government little choice.

Indian media reported earlier that the leaves of all key personnel near Pakistan have been canceled and the level of readiness raised in response to rumors of an upcoming air attack. A spokesman for the Pakistani Air Force has said they are also on alert in the event of “aggression” from India.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani insists that his nation is doing everything it can to defuse tensions diplomatically, saying his “peace-loving nation” will not be provoked by its long-time rival’s “jingoistic attitude.”

Relations between India and Pakistan had been on the mend until last month’s massive terrorist attack in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai. Since then tensions have spiraled to their worst level since 2002 amid reports from Mumbai police that all of the attackers came from Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has received international praise for its recent arrests of suspects in the Mumbai attacks, seen as an effort to silence concern about the nation’s alleged role in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Indian history. One anonymous Indian official dismissed the arrests as “an eyewash,” insisting there was “no modicum of doubt” about the complicity of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency in the attack.

Azhar was one of the three major suspects India requested Pakistan to hand over last week, and the only one who was actually a Pakistani national. He was placed under house arrest by Pakistan previously in connection with the 2001 attack on India’s Parliament, though he was never actually charged in the attack.

US officials seemed skeptical of the announcement, with one saying “there have been instances in the past where the Pakistanis arrested extremists after terrorist attacks on India but released them several months later, after the international pressure eased up.”

Likely to add to the skepticism, Pakistani Information Minister Sherry Rehman later insisted that the reports of Azhar’s detention were untrue.

But Foreign Minister Mehmood Qureshi says there is no question of handing over the detainees to India, saying rather that they will be tried in Pakistani courts under Pakistani law. In an opinion piece published in today’s New York Times, President Asif Ali Zardari said the Sunday raid demonstrated that “Pakistan will take action against the non-state actors found within our territory.”

The Indian government has demanded Pakistan hand over 20 people after the attacks, but were refused. The two nations have no extradition treaty with one another, and Minister Qureshi says Pakistan has no wish for a war with India, but is prepared to defend itself in the event of an attack.