The mayhem in Mumbai has been condemned all over the globe and Pakistan has offered all possible cooperation to India to help probe the ghastly incident. Brutal killing of innocent people and the whole episode of carnage has raised more questions than answers. It is of utmost importance to know; who were these eleven terrorists, how they reached Mumbai, who provided them local logistics, from where they got guns and explosives, who provided them transport and above all what was their objective. Indian security agencies say that the perpetrators came to Mumbai from Karachi by sea in some kind of a trawler. It is mind boggling that how these invisible 10 came from Karachi to Mumbai after crossing 21 Indian radars in a journey of 50 hours. The Indian radars can monitor activity of any vassal leaving far beyond Karachi - as far as Gwadar. The Mumbai coastline is intensely monitored twenty-four hours by high tech helicopters, hovercrafts, speedboats and vassals equipped with latest surveillance electronic gadgets. Every boat entering the Indian coastline is scanned. Even a small fishing boat crossing littoral waters is intercepted in minutes. It is therefore impossible that any trawler could sneak into India. American intelligence claims to have informed the Indian authorities in October last about the possibility of an attack from sea. But the Indian Naval Chief Misra has denied that any actionable intelligence was provided to them . The whole story is so confused and messed up that no body knows what exactly happened between November 26 and 28. But one thing is sure that it was a total failure of the Indian security agencies as the 10 meticulously executed their plan in a city of 20 million. They virtually took hostage the whole city for three days. Like precision guided missiles they reached the targets and took over heavily guarded 5-star hotels, dodging the security system of the entire city of Mumbai and the internal security system of the hotels and the Jewish centre. It is a mystery how could the Indian government ignore the warnings contained in a 2007 report to Parliament that the country's shores were poorly protected. Why weren't the police and the army better prepared to respond? Moreover, the Indian media declared war on Pakistan within minutes of the carnage. Comments like "bomb Pakistan" and imaginary graphics demonising its neighbour were all over the electronic media with fanfare. However, this unfortunate incident should be used both by India and Pakistan to work closely for stamping out terrorism from the region and live in peace. Blame game and intense propaganda against Pakistan would lead nowhere but to military confrontation which the two countries already had three in sixty years. India is reported to be planning a quick military strike at some of the areas in Pakistan they suspect to be training camp, and recently with the Indian fighter plans crossing the Pakistani air space no body in right frame of mind should entertain the idea of attack any where in Pakistan. It would not be like US drones intruding into tribal areas and going back unchallenged. Pakistani leadership says that any attack from India would be met with a matching response from Pakistan. In that scenario there would be every possibility of eruption of full scale war between two nuclear neighbours decimating everything in the subcontinent. There would be no winner except the terrorists. The horrific consequences of military conflict can be avoided if India positively responds to Pakistan's offer of full cooperation in tracking down the perpetrators of the Mumbai blasts. Rising above the usual blame game, serious efforts have to be made for finding the culprits who have almost brought the two countries on the brink of war. Furthermore, there has been a persistent propaganda that Pakistani nukes are not safe and one day might get into hands of terrorists. But what happened in Mumbai on November 26 to 28 has raised concerns about security of Indian nuclear assets. After the Mumbai carnage and failure of intelligence agencies several questions are being raised about the security of Indian nuclear weapons. B Raman, retired additional secretary, Cabinet Division who also worked in RAW has said, "I could not sleep the whole of last night. One question which kept bothering me again and again was: how safe are our nuclear establishments and material? Till now, we were greeting with glee Pakistan's incompetence in dealing with terrorism. We can no longer do so. We have become as clueless as Pakistan. Mumbai like attacks at the strategic sites of Indian nukes could make vulnerable the safety of nuclear arsenal. Poor security arrangements in a city like Mumbai of 20 million would surely ask trouble should such unfortunate incident occur again in India." The writer is a former diplomat