This startling revelation came from former NSG Director General Jyoti Krishan Dutt to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV’s Walk The Talk programme broadcast today — the first part was shown last week.

Dutt, who retired last February, said he would have liked at least one doctor at each of the three sites that were struck. While many of the NSG’s injured commandos had to be rushed to local hospitals for medical aid, Dutt, speaking to The Sunday Express, said the matter came up during the debriefing after the operations.

“Over the years, the number of medical officers has been reduced in the name of rationalization. At one point, we had 29. The number first came down to 24, then 22 and finally to 16,” Dutt said. “Under government rules, if a particular post lies vacant for a given period, it is abolished. This is what happened with NSG as many posts of Medical Officers were abolished. We took up the matter with the government and pressed for the numbers to be increased. If you don’t get personnel to fill up vacant posts, it does not mean the need for those posts is not there. We tried to keep the issue alive and the government is considering our demand sympathetically,” he added.

On deputation from Army and other paramilitary forces, the 16-odd doctors with the NSG are distributed all over its garrison at Manesar, the force headquarters at Mehram Nagar and the camps in Samalkha and R K Puram to provide medical services to an estimated 7,500 personnel and their families.

Having more of its own doctors at the operation sites, Dutt said, not only ensures better rapport with the commandos in action but also keeps morale high. “A commando, despite being injured, often doesn’t want to leave the site as adrenalin levels are so high. So you need to have your own doctors who can provide immediate first aid enabling the commando to resume duty immediately,” he said.

Realizing the significance of paramedical staff, Germany’s elite counter-terror force, the GSG-9, on which the NSG is modeled, has increased the number of men in a “hit team” from five to nine, deputing one paramedic with each hit team. Saying that having a paramedic with each hit team is not needed as of now, Dutt said the number of medical officers “needed to be calculated afresh” given the NSG’s expansion plans.

The Central Para Military Forces (CPMFs), too, are reeling under a shortage of doctors and paramedical staff. Almost 20 per cent of the 1,600 posts of doctors and paramedical staff in the CPMFs is currently vacant. The vacancies are more in the Specialist Doctor segment with close to 40-50 per cent of posts out of a total 300 lying vacant.

Admitting that the operations in Mumbai could have been conducted more efficiently had the NSG been better equipped, Dutt, speaking on Walk the Talk, underlined the need for sophisticated equipment.

“If I can hear what the terrorists are talking amongst themselves, it is an advantage. I have added information. If I am able to see the terrorists inside a room — where they are positioned, how they are hiding, what they are doing — it is definitely an advantage for me. Quite a lot of this equipment is available. And if the equipment is available, one should know how to use it and one should have it in one’s armoury. You never know when it can be required,” he said.

“In France, I was speaking to our counterparts in the Special Force there. They said whether it is a small item or whether it is a big equipment which they require, they are able to procure and get what they want between three days to three weeks. That is what we need to address,” he added.

On why the NSG didn’t use gas inside the buildings where the terrorists were holed up, Dutt said that the move could have had an adverse effect on children, pregnant women, cardiac and asthmatic patients.

“Instead of getting to terrorists, we may be causing unnecessary casualties. We had gas grenades and gas shells but we thought it prudent not to use them. A colleague suggested use of gas through the air-conditioning system. I said we just don’t know who may be the victims. I ruled it out. I was not in favour of using gas,” he said.