The 60-hour-long operation that neutralised the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists during the Mumbai attack last year could have been handled in a different way had there been a "certain type" of equipment and better intelligence, says the chief of the anti-terror force which fought them.

The terrorists, who were in "top physical fitness", knew the topography of the three locations -- Taj, Trident and Nariman House -- so well that he feels the LeT men who undertook the operation could have themselves done the recce of the targets under assumed names.

J K Dutt, then the chief of National Security Guard (NSG), said the Mumbai's elite Anti Terrorist Squad, which was then headed by slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare, was a "young force" and the state police had failed to realise for long that the gunmen throwing grenades and firing at innocent people in various parts of the city were not part of any gang war as they believed and that it was a terror attack.

Dutt, who retired as the force chief in February this year, said in an interview that till the last moments of the three-day operation the NSG did not have any concrete intelligence on the number of men holed up in each of the premises or even initially that the hotels had more than one building.

"In hindsight, whether this operation could have been faster or could have been handled in a different way? Yes, I believe so. If we had certain type of equipment which is now available in the market, it would definitely had been useful," said Dutt.

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