How many terrorists were involved?

Mumbai police commissioner has revealed that additional 14 to 16 Indians & pakistanis (besides fahim ansari and sabahuddin) were involved in mumbai terrorist attacks on 26/11. One wonders why such late admission and as per congress, withholding this information is some kind of grand scheme to trick pakistan into accepting facts as claimed below:

A senior Congress leader and one of the key strategists of the party explained the rationale behind Gafoor's revelations. He said, "It was India's strategy to wait for Islamabad to first accept that the Mumbai attack was planned inside Pakistan. Before we revealed the involvement of Indians in the attack, it was necessary that they admit the involvement of Pakistan-based people. They would have ducked the issue if we had revealed all the facts. Since Pakistan has now admitted that Pakistani-based elements masterminded the attack and that Kasab (the lone terrorist arrested during the terror strike) and the other terrorists were Pakistanis, there is no harm in revealing facts that are already known to the Mumbai police and the government."

But when satellite phone records, intercepts and other evidences clearly establishes nationality of key perpetrators, why do we need to withhold information?. Is it because some of the terrorists had managed to escape during operations, as claimed in earlier news reports and also that it reflects poorly on congress government and security agencies?.

In fact, IB which had carried it’s own investigations, believed that they were around 24 terrorists and they suspected that few might have managed to escape from Taj:

Although the IB confirms that no terrorists managed to escape from the Trident and the Nariman House, the same cannot be said about the Taj. Despite a heavy deployment of security forces and firing, two terrorists managed to gain entry into the Taj and this is an indication of how familiar they were with the terrain. They suspect that two may have managed to get away from the Taj after the rest of their team had taken position inside.

Here is an eye witness account, which strengthens above assertion:

The question now is where are the four men who took over the Taj initially. The body count of terrorists recovered from the Taj shows that only four terrorists were found. It is believed that these men could have escaped from the Taj. It would also be interesting to point out here an eye witness account of a person by the name Apurva Parekh who said that he heard voices of three to four terrorists at the Trident which were different compared to the voices he heard at the same place earlier. This is a clear indication that the there were more than three men initially at the Trident and they could have escaped during the operation since the Mumbai police do not account for these additional men.

Further IB believes that:

Intelligence Bureau sources now confirm that the men who came into Mumbai earlier to set up base were completely different from the men who carried out the final assault.

Moreover there were some rumors of terrorist checking in as guests in Hotels.

These reports were not given credence before but in awake of current revelations they gain importance. Lack of clarity in the investigation over number of terrorists, that were involved in assaults and those who had provided logistics support only adds to confusion. All these reports certainly raises questions over motive behind congress government's grand scheme and perhaps their explanation seems to be an excuse to hide their failure in letting these terrorists escape and it appears to be revealed under compulsion of circumstances.

Finally, holding our premature jubilations over pakistan’s admission will serve us better.