There are no two ways aboutit. The tragic violence in South Mumbai on Saturday last, points out to abjectintelligence failure on the part of Mumbai police.
The mob violence triggered inMumbai’s Azad Maidan-Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus area shows lack ofintelligence and inability to assess inputs, intelligence experts said onSunday.
The violence on Saturdayclaimed two lives and injured over 50, majority of them policemen. That it wasan intelligence failure is something that needs to be examined, but thanks to MumbaiPolice chief Arup Patnaik, who saved the day for Mumbai.
In 1992-93, he had served asa Deputy Commissioner of Police in Mumbai and had seen what happened andpleaded with the protestors to calm down recalling those days.
The rally among other organisationswas spearheaded by Raza Academy, which claims to be a progressive organisation.But, apparantly, a clergyman from the dais had said that the media was notportraying the incidents of Assam and Burma properly, where the protestorsclaimed Muslims were being massacred.
Immediately, after that themob first began targeting media persons, mainly photographers, and then clashedwith the police. They hurled stones, used sticks, damaged the Amar Jawanmemorial opposite the headquarters of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation,torched media vans and went on a rampage.
Thereafter, police resortedto fire. “The police had exercised utmost restraint, more than the best it can,”informed sources said.
However, that it is anintelligence failure could not be denied. “It is a clear case of intelligencefailure….first it was the size of the mob. While the policemen involved ingathering intelligence expected a mob of few hundreds, more than 25,000 peoplegathered….secondly, required homework was not done,” experts said. The SpecialBranch of the Mumbai Police gathers intelligence and incidentally, it is at a stonethrow away distance located between the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporationheadquarters off CST and the Mumbai Police Commissionerate at Crawford Market.
“For the past fortnight, theRaza Academy has been highlighting the issue of violence against Muslims inMayanmar (Burma) and then started highlighting the issue of Assam and Burmatogether. While initially, it was Raza Academy alone, but at later stage otherstoo joined in,” experts said.
They also pointed out that Saturday’smeeting of Raza Academy was joined by All India Sunni Jamait-ul Ulma and JamateRaze e Msutufa and supported by others like Awami Party League. “In the SMSinviting the media, the League which was floated by former AssistantCommissioner of Police Shamsher Khan Pathan, had said that 50,000 persons wouldjoin protest,” experts pointed out.
Police officials, however,said that they anticipated a big crowd and had posted a good number of peopleat the location. As the crowd swelled, the deployment was increased, butadmitted that they never thought of violence.
