About 172 people, a least a third of them Muslims, were killed in deadly attacks on several Mumbai targets, including two luxurious hotels and a railway terminus.

Indian commandoes killed nine of the 10 attackers who laid three-day siege on the city.

India blames the attack on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT), an outlawed Pakistani group fighting Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

Authorities have hinted the attackers might have received support from local Muslims.

Though no violence has yet been reported, Mumbai Muslims, numbering two million of its estimated 19-million populace, fear being targeted because of their faith.

The turbulent history of their city gives credence to their fears.

Nearly 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the Mumbai's 1992-1993 communal violence sparked by the demolition of a centuries-old mosque at the hands of Hindu zealots in the northern town of Ayodhya.

"I don't think Bombay has been the same since 1993," agrees Nasim Zehra, a Pakistani political analyst and fellow of Harvard University Asia Center, using Mumbai's former name.

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