Mumbai top cop comes under fire

After the political leaders, it's the police officers who are under fire for alleged lack of co-ordination and "collapse of leadership" when security forces were fighting the terrorists on the night of November 26.

After the political leaders, it's the police officers who are under fire for alleged lack of co-ordination and "collapse of leadership" when security forces were fighting the terrorists on the night of November 26.

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For the first time since the attack, a highly decorated and respected officer of the Indian Police Service has come out in the open and slammed the role of Mumbai police's chief Hasan Gafoor.

"There was complete collapse of leadership for three days (during the attack). The forces which had come from out of the state did not know who is the operational director," Padmashree awardee and former director general of Border Security Force (BSF) Prakash Singh told HT. "Only person I see is the Mumbai Police Commissioner who should have been in-charge."

Gafoor refused to comment on the issue.

Though CM Ashok Chavan has ordered a high level probe into whether there was any dereliction of duty, the members of the probe committee are yet to be decided.

But Singh believes such inquiry should not be only at the state level. "The commission of inquiry should be like the one undertaken by the US after the 9/11 attack and should be completed in a time bound period. It should find out systematic failure and decide who is to be held accountable at each level and the role of all the agencies including the IB, R&AW, Coast Guard, Navy, etc," said Singh.