Mumbai top cop denies specific input prior to attacks

ATTACK ON MUMBAI: THE AFTERMATH

Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafur has denied that there was any specific input about the recent terror attacks on Mumbai, which killed over 180 people and injured more than 300. Instead, he said, there was a general warning about potential terror threat on the five-star hotels in the city after the attacks on Marriot Hotel in Islamabad.

Addressing a press conference here, Gafur said, “as we had received information about possible attacks on five-star hotels, we had sensitised management of these hotels and that’s why security was beefed up. In Taj, no car was directly allowed to enter into the hotel premises. Instead, these (the cars) were let in only after proper checking. But it will be wrong to say that we had specific information that Taj or Trident hotels were the targets of terrorists.”

Last year, intelligence agencies had alerted that industrial establishments along the coast of Gujarat and some southern states could be targeted by terrorists using the sea route. However, there was no information about the terrorists targeting Mumbai or Maharashtra, Gafur claimed while answering the query about specific intelligence input from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country’s external intelligence agency.

Speaking about Pakistan’s involvement in the terror Mumbai attacks, he said: “At this stage, what we can reveal is that all terrorists were from Pakistan and they started their journey to India from Karachi. We will share what information we have on Pakistan-based terror groups with the government at appropriate stage of the investigation.”

He further said that the credit cards issued by Indian financial institutions which were recovered from the Taj and Trident belong to guests at these hotels, and not to the terrorists contrary to what media report suggested.

He also denied there were more than 10 terrorists and some are still at large in the city. So far, investigations have not revealed the involvement of any local individuals or groups in the terror attacks.