Mumbai police chief in job switch

Mumbai's police chief has reportedly been shunted aside ahead of this week’s publication of a report into last year’s terror attacks that is expected to criticise his actions when the city was under siege.

Police commissioner Hasan Gafoor, who spearheaded the response to the attacks which killed 166 people including 12 policemen, has allegedly been switched to a job with the force’s housing corporation.

The Pradhan report is understood to be critical of several senior police officers, including Mr Gafoor, though the specifics of the criticisms are unclear.

Various media reports have suggested there was a breakdown in co-ordination between various agencies and that Mumbai police were ill-prepared and under-equipped to handle the situation when they were confronted by 10 well-armed and determined militants last November.

Several senior police officers were killed after they rushed to personally deal with the militants, who struck at several locations across the city, including two luxury hotels and the main train station. It is understood Mr Gafoor himself drove straight from his home to the Oberoi-Trident hotel, where he then spent much of the next two days.

The attacks have already claimed several prominent scalps. The state’s chief minister and his deputy were forced to stand down in the immediate aftermath.

Later, India’s Home Minister and the national security advisor both resigned in a move widely seen as the government’s attempt to provide a scapegoat in the face of mounting public anger.

Mr Gafoor insisted he was being promoted, rather than slighted. “This is not a transfer,” he told the Indian Express, after his replacement was announced on Saturday evening.

“In fact, I am even happier because I’m an engineer and I’ve been given a posting in which there are a lot of engineering applications,” he added.