India's defense minister says India would likely retaliate if Pakistan-based militants launched an attack similar to the Mumbai assaults that killed more than 160 people.

M.M. Pallam Raju said Saturday at a security conference in Singapore that India, if attacked again, would have difficulty justifying what he called “the self-restraint” it showed in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

India has long suspected that members of Pakistan's intelligence agency were involved in the Mumbai attack. The Pakistani government has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani-American man has recently confessed in a trial in Chicago that he scouted the Mumbai sites and received weapons and other training from the Pakistan militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. David Headly said Lashkar has links with Pakistan intelligence.

Laskhar terrorists took over a hotel, a Jewish center and other buildings in Mumbai for three days in November 2008. The attack killed 166 people.