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We were not prepared for Mumbai attack: Pawar
Published on Mon, Dec 01, 2008 at 19:31, Updated on Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 07:52 in 
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Nationalist Congress Party chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has accepted that security establishments in the country were totally unprepared to handle an attack like the one in Mumbai. He said that except the Indian Army and the National Security Guards, no one else is prepared to handle such a concerted attack. Pawar said, "It is true that even Mumbai Police got some sophisticated equipment but not (in) that number. Here those who came - they came with number one rigorous training for number of months, number two commitment, number three excellent equipment"
"(We were) absolutely unprepared and even today we are not well prepared to fight this kind of terror except for Indian Army and NSG. Any state government's police force is not very well equipped, and they are not prepared. They are capable, but they have to be trained and equipped."
On being asked that why has India failed to learned any lessons from past terror attacks, by not strengthening coastal security for instance - a loophole that was used by terrorists to bring in explosives, in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts also, he sought to make an important distinction between the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and those in 1993.
He said, "In 1993 those who were responsible - they were from Mumbai, they were local people, they were from around Mumbai, they were Indians. But here (in 2008) that is not the case...here these 10 Johnnies who were involved were all from Pakistan."
He also accepted that the attacks are likely to dent the credibility of the government.
Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you accept that the Mumbai attacks have severely affected the credibility of the Congress-NCP government there?
Sharad Pawar: It's not question of Congress-NCP, it has definitely affected the government, whether it is Congress-NCP government or any government, but it has (also) affected the country's prestige. This particular attack, I am not ready to accept that it was just on Taj, or on Nariman building or on Oberoi. It was an attack on India's security system.
He said that Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil had offered to resign on his own three days back, and it was he who asked Patil to continue till the operation to defeat the terrorists was over.
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URBANEYE
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What ever statement is given by ministers is not meaningful unless until Dawood's empire and beneficiaries are not destroyed, things
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Mr.Pawar, well reacted. When your govt at the center and the state is going to arrest the criminals indulging in
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"We were not prepared for Mumbai attack"--- What does it mean? This time Dawood did not pay you for your
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sir,
many indian citizens are missing a point here. as has been claimed by the central govenrment
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From the comments of Mr. Pawar, I feel that the entire political system need to be revamped. We should adopt
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