Intelligence was given to navy, coast guard

New Delhi: Intelligence reports of a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) vessel attempting to infiltrate into Mumbai was shared with the Coast Guard as well as the naval intelligence, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said yesterday, while asserting that India cannot go back to "business as usual" with Pakistan.

In a statement to the Lok Sabha, Chidambaram dwelt for the first time since he took over December 1 on whether intelligence on the Mumbai attack was evaluated and acted upon.

He specified that the intelligence information was shared with the director general of the Coast Guard and the principal director of the naval intelligence.

"The Coast Guard made a serious effort including deploying vessels and aircraft to locate the suspect vessel but was not successful. The navy found that the coordinates of the vessel, as reported, placed it well within the territorial waters of Pakistan," Chidambaram said in his speech on the Mumbai terror attacks.

He emphasised that there was need to make the intelligence machinery "effective" and "result-oriented" and said time had come to take hard decisions to prepare the country and people to face the challenge of terrorism.

Chidambaram asserted that valuable evidence had been gathered to establish the involvement of LeT militants from Pakistan in the Mumbai terror attack and said India "cannot go back to business as usual" with its neighbour.

"We will strain every nerve to defend our borders. Given the nature of the threats, we cannot go back to business as usual. Hard decisions will be taken to protect our country and its people. "The finger of suspicion unmistakably points to the territory of our neighbour Pakistan," Chidambaram said on the terror attacks in Mumbai.

The Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India's external intelligence agency, claimed it had given information specifying the places and the time bracket the terrorists were expected to attack, official sources earlier told IANS.

At least on four occasions and even on November 26, the day 10 militants laid siege on high-profile targets in Mumbai, including the Oberoi Trident and the Taj hotels, RAW had tipped off authorities of the impending attack by sea.

"The navy had committed several surface units and aircraft in the zone during the period Nov 19-20. In the absence of further inputs or information from the agencies concerned, the navy concluded that no further action could be taken on the basis of the available information," said Chidambaram.

Making a statement in the house, Chidambaram said 10 Pakistani nationals belonging to the LeT left Karachi Nov 23, boarded a launch called Al Hussaini and hijacked an Indian fishing vessel M.V. Kuber before landing up in Mumbai in inflatable dinghies.

As follow-up measures to the attack, Chidambaram said the government had decided to set up 20 counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools in different parts of country.