New Delhi  - Still reeling from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India is a nation on edge at the close of 2008.

After the Mumbai crisis, security agencies and police remained on high alert across many Indian cities as emails and phone calls warning of more terror strikes delayed flights and prompted heavy security in public places.

The Mumbai attacks triggered anger and fear as thousands took to the streets in demonstrations calling for retaliation against neighbouring Pakistan, where the terrorists were believed to have come from.

"Enough is enough" was the catchphrase at many rallies as public outrage surged over the failure of the Manmohan Singh government to protect the country from the most savage terrorist attacks in any year since the country's 1947 independence.

Terrorists in 2008 struck at will and with increasing intensity across the country's length and breadth. India's national and commercial capitals, its technology hubs, tourist centres and Western citizens all became targets.

"There is a design to strike at the developed, scientific and economic ability of the country and these (attacks) are not just sporadic," Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

In May, seven bombs ripped through the tourist city of Jaipur, killing at least 63 people in streets and markets outside Hindu temples.

In July, eight small bombs claimed two lives in the country's information technology hub of Bangalore.

But the bloody mayhem across cities had just begun. A day later, 56 people died in 27 bombings across the western commercial city of Ahmedabad. The capital, New Delhi, was hit by serial blasts that killed 24 people in September.

While previous attacks were blamed on militants operating from Pakistani soil, the emergence of the "home-grown terrorist" became evident.

A little-known group called the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed responsibility for bombings in revenge for the 2002 anti-Muslim violence in western Gujarat state.

In October, separatist rebels along with Muslim militants carried out 12 bombings across the north-eastern state of Assam, killing 81 people.

A month later the Mumbai siege, during which more than 170 people were killed in attacks on the financial hub's main railway station, a hospital and luxury hotels, was to become the worst terrorist attack in India in 15 years.

In 1993, a wave of bombings in Mumbai claimed more than 250 lives.

Indian police say that in the latest attacks, 10 gunmen linked to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group arrived by sea and unleashed terror in Mumbai for almost 60 hours beginning November 26.

As in the past, security agencies blamed Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for aiding the attacks.

Likened to a "terrorist invasion" of the country, the Mumbai massacre resulted in rising tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

The deteriorating security scenario with attacks in cities across India in 2008 claiming 400 lives and wounding 1,000 people culminated in the ouster of security minister Shivraj Patil.

Along with Islamic militancy, India struggled with protracted separatist revolts in India-administered Kashmir and Maoist rebellions in the country's north-east.

India's internal security hit a nadir with attacks on Christians by Hindu groups and targeting of northern migrants in western Maharashtra state.

In the face of the chaos, India remains crippled by an undermanned and ill-equipped security apparatus.

"Our intelligence and security system dates back to the early 20th century," said Ajai Sahni, director of Delhi's Institute of Conflict Management.

During the Mumbai siege, he said, the terrorists were armed with AK-47 assault weapons while police fought back with .303 rifles od the type first used in 1895.

"There is no way we can fight first-class terrorist units with a third-class security system," he said.

Sahni said India had just 126 police officers for every 100,000 of its people, compared to ratios in western countries ranging between 250 and 500 for every 100,000.

There is a near-breakdown in the intelligence apparatus, with the strength of field personnel engaged in intelligence gathering in the key Intelligence Bureau at less than
3,500 for a population of 1.1 billion, he said.

Former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash said an "asymmetric war" was being waged by the ISI, which he claimed was aiding militants, separatism and insurgency and destabilizing the Indian economy by pumping in fake currency.

By refusing to recognize this war, treating it either as a law and order problem or euphemistically calling it "cross-border terrorism," India was sending a message that it was a "soft state" unwilling to counter such threats head-on, Prakash said. (dpa)