Zeenews Bureau
Mumbai: Former Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Gafoor has made a startling revelation by claiming a top Maharashtra police officer had asked him to withdraw the National Security Guards (NSG) during the 26/11 attacks as they were consuming too much time in winding up the operations.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Gafoor — who came under lot of criticism for his handling of the operations during 26/11, and was later shunted out and made DGP (Housing) — revealed that the then state deputy home minister RR Patil held a meeting with top police officers, including the DGP, at the state police headquarters on November 28.
The DGP suggested that NSG commandos be withdrawn from operations as they were taking a lot of time and the police must step in, Gafoor revealed.
"I was told to withdraw the NSG and instead use the Mumbai police for the ongoing operations. The DGP told me that the entire world was watching us and so we should put an immediate end to the siege and help defuse the crisis. This sounded ridiculous, as the NSG is an elite force that can tackle such crisis situation. I said it was even preposterous to even think of taking off the NSG," he added.
Lauding the NSG for doing a "great job" in eliminating the terrorists, the former Mumbai police commissioner said "without them it would not have been possible to even map the terrorists' movement inside those built-up areas, let alone take them head on and overpower them ultimately."
First Published: Saturday, November 21, 2009, 10:01