Lashkar ship alert reached Navy HQ, was not sent on to Western Command

An internal probe into the possible intelligence lapses around the Mumbai terror attacks has given a virtual clean chit to the Coast Guard...

An internal probe into the possible intelligence lapses around the Mumbai terror attacks has given a virtual clean chit to the Coast Guard citing its attempts to locate the infiltrating Lashkar vessel but has pointed fingers at the Intelligence Bureau for not 8220;refining8221; its inputs and at the Naval Headquarters for keeping its Western Command out of the loop.

All the three were asked to explain their role and their action-taken reports have been forwarded to the Cabinet Secretary who is heading the probe.

Sources confirmed to The Indian Express that inquiries so far have revealed:

8226; The intelligence input about the infiltrating Lashkar vessel8217;s coordinates, first reported by The Indian Express, was passed on to Principal Director, Naval Intelligence, Naval Headquarters, which did not forward it to its operational Western Naval Command. The Principal Director, Naval Intelligence directly reports to Navy Chief through the Deputy Chief.

8226; So the Western Command, in charge of the Konkan coast, came into the picture only when its marine commandos Marcos engaged the terrorists after a request from the Maharashtra Chief Secretary in the midnight of November 26-27, hours into the attack and before the NSG took over the operation at 9 am the next day.

8226; The Coast Guard launched a ship, a hovercraft and a Dornier to search for the Lashkar vessel between November 20 and 24 but could not find it as the vessel never entered Indian waters.

8226; The Coast Guard also did not inform the Western Command, given that Naval Headquarters had already been alerted.

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8226; After receiving the initial intelligence input on November 20, the Coast Guard got back to the Intelligence Bureau asking for further actionable leads as the suspected ship could not be traced within the Indian maritime boundaries but the IB could not refine its inputs despite reminders from the Coast Guard. The Joint Director IB, in fact, told the Coast Guard that further inputs would be given only when available.

8226; The Western Naval Command8217;s Defence of Gujarat exercise took place between November 17 and 21, during which the Gujarat government banned any new fishing trawlers from going to sea. Kuber, the Indian trawler seized by terrorists, had set out to sea on November 13.

8226; As per the intelligence input, the coordinates of the Lashkar vessel were 30-34 nautical miles south of Karachi but well within the Air Defence Interrogation Zone. In other words, this area was out of bounds for Indian agencies to enter without permission from Karachi.

8226; Al Hussaini, the vessel the terrorists are said to have used, is suspected to be owned by one of the key Lashkar operatives but the ship cannot be located now. The terrorists boarded Kuber in Pakistan waters at a pre-determined location with the Indian crew expecting some contraband transfer. Kuber8217;s owners have been interrogated by the Navy as well as by Mumbai police.

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Oblivious to the alert, the Western Naval Command, the Gujarat Marine Police and even Home Guards war-gamed enemy intrusion into Indian waters. Not only a large number of fishing vessels were searched during the exercise, the Western Navy even camouflaged some of its own surface units as fishing trawlers. The Indian Air Force and some Coast Guard units also participated in this exercise.