Casual response to intelligence inputs: 26/11 rpt

Mumbai, Dec 22: The Ram Pradhan commission's inquiry report on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks has found that the Maharashtra Home Department did not respond adequately to the intelligence inputs warning the state of the threat.

The report on the Nov 2008 terror attacks, which was tabled in the Maharashtra legislative on Monday, Dec 21, claims that the intelligence alerts from the Central agencies were treated 'casually'.

They were 'mechanically forwarded' to operational units by the office of the Director General of Police (DGP), the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the State's Home Department, the report observed.

Revealing a more distressing detail, the report has established that there was total confusion in the processing of intelligence alert at the state government level.

The usual practice is for the Chief Secretary to pass the alerts from the Intelligence Bureau or Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to the State Home Department.

Sometimes the intelligence alerts were forwarded by the DGP office with a semi-official letter, the inquiry commission found.

While the Additional Chief Secretaries (Home) and Principal Secretary (Home) denied receiving any intelligence inputs from the MHA, the Maharashtra DGP furnished copies of important intelligence inputs issued by MHA addressed to the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary.

In yet another serious lapse, the Additional Chief Secretary was not dealing with these alerts himself. He was allegedly handing over these sensitive communications to a junior level officer, the report said.

OneIndia News