Mumbai Death Toll Lowered to 174

By Paul Peachey

MUMBAI, India -- With corpses still being pulled from a once-besieged hotel, India's top security official resigned Sunday as the government struggled under growing accusations of security failures following terror attacks that killed 174 people.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who has become highly unpopular during a long series of terror attacks across India, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who accepted it, according to the president's office.

The Cabinet reshuffle comes as a chorus of criticism about the government's handling of the Mumbai attacks grows louder.

"Our Politicians Fiddle as Innocents Die," read a headline Sunday in the Times of India newspaper.

A day after the siege ended, authorities were still removing victims' bodies from the ritzy Taj Mahal hotel, where three suspected Muslim militants made a last stand before Indian commandos killed them in a blaze of gunfire and explosions.

On Sunday, the waterfront landmark, popular among foreign tourists and Indian high society, was surrounded by metal barricades, its shattered windows boarded over. At the iconic Gateway of India basalt arch nearby, a shrine of candles, flowers and messages commemorated victims.

"We have been to two funerals already," Mumbai resident Karin Dutta said as she placed a small bouquet of white flowers for several friends killed in the hotel. "We're going to another one now."

The rampage was carried out by gunmen at 10 sites across Mumbai starting Wednesday night. At least 239 were wounded.

One site, the Cafe Leopold, a famous tourist restaurant and the scene of one of the first attacks, opened Sunday for the first time since the mayhem -- but police asked it to close just minutes later because they said the eatery needed permission first.