MUMBAI, INDIA — In normal times, money drives Mumbai. And even as police detonated grenades they removed Saturday from the last redoubt of a terrorist band, residents fretted about the effects of three days of violence on the seething energy that unites rich and poor, Hindu and Muslim in India's commercial capital.
By targeting two luxury hotels, a restaurant popular with tourists and a Jewish center, the attackers appeared intent on destroying Mumbai's economic lifeblood, driving away foreign investors and tourists, analysts said.
With police saying they had killed the last of the attackers in the vast reaches of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel early Saturday, Mumbai residents reached for their ginger tea and morning bread with a measure of relief. Their chaotic city, home of India's film industry, known as Bollywood, and some of the world's most expensive real estate, is proud of its ability to bounce back. When bombers attacked its trains in 2006, killing about 200 people, rail service resumed in four hours and the stock market rose 3% the next day.
But this time, it could take a while, residents said.
Many may think twice about going to crowded markets, cinemas and railway stations.
At the 150-year-old Crawford Market, Mumbai's largest, long, thin carts wended their way among shoppers, sugar cane juice vendors and potholes.
"Big, big sale!" yelled one merchant.
"Seventy rupees anything we have!" yelled another.
After a two-day shutdown, people were drifting back to the market, but fewer than normal.
"They just wanted to hurt India's economy," said Badshah Sheif, a merchant selling duct tape in a stall smaller than a phone booth. "But we'll work together and get business moving again soon."
Official estimates of the death toll from the attacks climbed to 195 on Saturday, including 20 soldiers and police officers. Eighteen foreigners were reported to be among the dead. They included six with U.S. citizenship: three at the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish center, a man and his daughter on a spiritual pilgrimage, and one person who has not been identified.
A top aide said India's home minister, Shivraj Patil, who is in charge of much of the country's internal security services, sent his resignation to the prime minister to take responsibility for the attacks, according to the Associated Press.
A team of FBI agents was on the way to Mumbai.
