26/11 report poses more questions than answers

NO CLARITY: Panelists discuss the findings of Ram Pradhan Committee report and its findings.

                  

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The 26/11probe report by a committee headed by former bureaucrat, Ram Pradhan, has been under a veil of secrecy for several months now, and the Maharashtra government has steadfastly refused to make it public. Now, the report has been accessed by our sister news channel, IBN 7.

CNN-IBN answers all the big questions that the Ram Pradhan report has raised on the most high-profile terror attack that India has confronted. Here are some of the questions that were raised after Mumbai was held hostage by terrorists for nearly 60 hours, starting on November 26, 2008.

• Who was responsible for the lapses on 26/11, was it individual officers or the entire system?

• What were the circumstances that led to the death of top cops Karkare and Kamte?

• Did the Mumbai police suffer from lack of ammunition and low quality bulletproof jackets?

• Will the 26/11 report change anything on the ground?

To try and answer some of these questions on the panel of experts were former additional director of RAW, B Raman; Co-Author, The Last Bullet, Vineeta Deshmukh; CNN-IBN Managing Editor, Vinay Tewari; CNN-IBN Correspondent Toral Varia; former Mumbai police commissioner, MN Singh; and NCP MLC, Jiten Ahwad.

The 26/11 report is critical of the role of then police commissioner, Hasan Gafoor. It questions the manner in which the standard operating procedures were not followed. Most of the officers whom Gafoor has blamed for not being effective during the operation have not been criticised by the Pradhan committee.

MN Singh kickstarted the debate saying, "The police commissioner has to take all the responsibility and the blame but the role of the junior officers - which Gafoor has belatedly talked about - will also have to be looked into because. However, I find his allegations, coming a year after the incident, very surprising. He should have immediately submitted a default report and should have gone straight to the government. That apart, the fact that officers did not carry out his orders is a serious matter and has to be looked into."

He said that it was more a systems failure than anything else. "To begin with, the Intelligence machinery failed. Then the preventive machinery like the customs and the coast guard also failed to prevent terrorists coming in from the sea route and of course the forces on the land failed to respond promptly and effectively and the mayhem went on for three days. I think the government will also have to take responsibility. I think the Ram Pradhan Committee should have been given very narrow terms of references that a lot of things have remained under wraps and we have not found out the complete truth."

He said that it was very sad that when the Vinita Kamte - the widow of Ashok Kamte, one of the senior officers who died on 26/11 - said that someone from the Ram Pradhan Committee should have called her, the panel responded by saying that they were not supposed to talk to members of the public, making it evident that the scope of their probe was very small.

"She is not just a member of the public, she is the widow of a martyr," he stated.

Vinita Kamte has written a book The Last Bullet - which she co-authored with Vinita Deshmukh - which accuses Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria for mishandling the situation. The Ram Pradhan Committee report, meanwhile has said praised Maria for his role in handling the situation.