MUMBAI: The top brass of Mumbai police overlooked the standard operating drill during 26/11 attack, the Ram Pradhan probe said, adding there was also "total confusion" in the Maharashtra government in processing of Central intelligence alerts of possible strikes in this City.
The Standard Operating Procedures(SOP) were treated in a "cavalier manner", the panel concluded, and asked "Why have the SOPs at all?". The attack left 166 persons dead.
The Pradhan committee which went into the response of the police after terrorists from Pakistan struck Mumbai on November 26 last year said the City police Commissioner should himself have been at the Command Centre which might have helped in better utilisation of forces and prevented duplication of efforts by different police units.
"An overall assessment and proper analysis of these reports(intelligence alerts) would have revealed a strong indication that some major terrorist action was being planned against Mumbai. The existing mechanism to make such an overall assessment was inadequate," the report, which is yet to be made public, said.
Stating that all intelligence alerts were mechanically forwarded to operational units either by DGP's Office, ATS, or by Home department, the report said, "the committee found total confusion in the processing of intelligence alerts at the level of state government."
The Maharashtra DGP received inputs from Central agencies like IB and RAW on possible terror strikes prior to 26/11 but it was not shared with the state intelligence chief, it said, bringing out a glaring communication gap between the two.
The Committee also said the managements of the Taj and Oberoi hotels, which bore the brunt of the attacks, had "tragically" failed to implement important security advice given by Mumbai police prior to 26/11 owing to "own policy perspective as hospitality industry".