The government is in an embarrassing spot over a US request, that came right after 26/11, seeking to know and rehearse the standard operating procedures in case its embassy premises here were attacked. Nine months later, it has still to get a response. Reason: the Delhi Police never had an SOP and are now struggling to make one.

The government saw merit in the US request and in fact, decided to broaden the scope and tasked the Delhi Police with drawing up an SOP for all major foreign missions here. This would include details of the first response, identifying a nodal point to liaise with the embassy security staff and also to coordinate with specialised forces like the NSG in case such a situation were to arise.

It’s learnt that the government intends to brief heads of missions on the SOP but the only problem is that a proper document is yet to be prepared. The exercise has been on for several months but each draft has had inadequacies and the government wants to be certain that the SOP document should not turn out to be an embarrassment.

Unaware of the problems within, the US is said to be pressing harder with repeated diplomatic requests underlining the urgency of moving fast on this. Given that most of its missions in the region are terror targets, its concerns have only accentuated after the Mumbai attacks.

At one point, sources said, the US embassy here even offered to host officials from different agencies within its premises to chalk out a SOP. However, that was duly turned down on grounds that this was a sovereign function and New Delhi would work out a plan.

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