Maharashtra Government on Monday tabled in the state assembly the Ram Pradhan committee report on 26/11 Mumbai attacks which cited instances of non-adherence to the Standard Operating Practice (SOP) during the terror siege.
Home Minister R R Patil tabled a Marathi translation of the report in the assembly six months after the committee submitted its findings to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.
He informed the House that a 16-member panel, comprising the chief minister and himself, will study all aspects of the report including its "leakage" in media.
Patil said the Pradhan panel report given to the state government and the one "leaked" in media were similar.
The report went into the response by the police to the 26/11 attacks and pointed out "total confusion" in processing of Intelligence alerts at the level of the state government and "inadequacies" in the existing mechanism for analysing alerts about possible strikes.
The panel report cited instances of non-adherence to the Standard Operating Practice (SOP) during the terror siege.
"It was specifically mentioned (in the Intelligence reports) that attacks (were) to take place on three dates that is on August 20, 2006 (alert dated 07-08-2006), May 24, 2008 (alert dated 19-05-2008) and August 11, 2008 (alert dated 09-08-2008) against certain targets including Taj and Oberoi hotels, which did not happen," the report said.
The report said the "war-like" attack was beyond the capacity of the Mumbai Police -- for that matter of any police set up. It had to be tackled by specialised forces such as the National Security Guards.
"However, we find that the CP Mumbai did not exhibit adequate initiative in handling the multi-pronged attack. He remained at one spot near Trident Hotel throughout the operations.
"For lack of visible Command and Control at the CP's office, an impression that the police handled the operation ineffectively, was created by the public.
"Moreover several senior officers told us that those three days, the CP did not give any directions nor enquired of ongoing operations. We found that although the CP kept in touch on wireless and mobile on selective basis, several officers felt that they did not get a feeling that they were part of a team," the report said.
The committee said "we have come to the conclusion that there was absence of visible and overt leadership on the part of Hasan Gafoor, the CP".
The committee did not find any failure to act on inputs provided by the central intelligence agencies.
It had a word of praise for the then Director General of Police A N Roy, who it found that throughout the operations, he made himself available to provide information and offered help while taking care not to intrude into the functioning of Mumbai Police officers. PTI
