Stung cops seek to rework response routine

The Mumbai Police,which was caught off-guard and unprepared to face a terror attack as audacious as 26/11...

The Mumbai Police,which was caught off-guard and unprepared to face a terror attack as audacious as 26/11,has begun putting in place some new,basic steps that are expected to help improve its response to such instances in future. The move by the think-tank of the city police to revise its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) a document that guides decisions such as first response and force deployments in crises comes alongside a Rs 127-crore modernisation plan that includes acquiring new weapons and equipment for the 44,000-strong force.

Top police sources said the revised SOP document was forwarded to the state Home Department for approval nearly a month ago,and a final nod is awaited. The sources declined to go into the changes made in the document as it would expose the operational details and compromise the force. However,they said it was a big improvement on the previous version that was last updated shortly after the 7/11 serial train blasts in 2006. A terror attack along the lines of 26/11 had never been conceptualised,and the SOP did not include strategies to deal with hostage situations,gun battles with heavily armed terrorists or sieges,the sources said.

When Home Minister P Chidambaram visited the city following the November 26 attacks,he had given a list of tasks to the state government. One of the tasks on this list was the drafting of a new SOP for the Mumbai Police. To prepare this,the Joint Commissioners of Police in charge of the Crime Branch,the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Law and Order were asked to submit their suggestions to Mumbai Police Commissioner Hassan Gafoor, said a top officer on condition of anonymity.

The Commissioner of Police prepared a final revised SOP taking the suggestions of his three juniors into consideration,and the Mumbai Police sent the document to the Home Department for approval. The new SOP will include a comprehensive initial response plan for hostage scenarios and countering armed terrorists, the officer said.

Confirming that he had been consulted for a revised SOP,Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS) K P Raghuvanshi said,Whatever experience we gathered from the night of November 26,and whatever ground realities we faced at the time have been taken care of in the revised SOP. Gafoor,when asked for his comments,insisted that this was a routine procedure. SOPs are updated regularly and this is a routine procedure. Several officers from various departments in the Mumbai Police are consulted for updating an SOP, he said.

The Mumbai Police did not have a formal SOP even in the aftermath of the 1993 serial blasts,which killed 257 people and remains the worst terrorist attack in the country in terms of casualties. However,certain new patrolling and preventive practices were introduced by way of internal circulars. A S Samra,the Mumbai Police Commissioner at the time,introduced the important post of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) to coordinate police responses. Assault vehicles were also introduced into the force. It was only several years later that an SOP was drafted to deal with communal riots in the city,and it was revised after the 7/11 serial blasts to include responses to terror attacks.

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