The Army and the Navy invited an ugly spot upon themselves, even as the National Security Guards (NSG) were carrying out operations on three different locations in Mumbai, in a hungry race for publicity that landed them a rap on the knuckles by the Defence Ministry. The credit-taking spree started on Thursday with senior officers of the Army and Navy giving impromptu statements. Consider this:• The Navy was the first off the block with Western Command Chief Vice Admiral J S Bedi talking to a television channel about the role of the marine commandoes in the operations. The officer revealed that the Navy was searching for suspicious vessels, the input for which was provided by the Mumbai police, in nearby waters and had even boarded and searched a merchant vessel. In the most shocking goof up, the Vice Admiral even passed on a photograph of evidence seized by marine commandoes to the media. The photograph contained details of a credit card with a photograph and the weapons used by the terrorists. • The Navy was followed by the Army on Wednesday with General Officer Commanding (Mumbai Area) Maj Gen R K Hooda saying that there was evidence that the terrorists were not from the country and were speaking Punjabi, indicating that they belonged to Pakistan. This, even before intelligence agencies firmly established the Pak link and acted on the information. • The spree continued on Thursday after Lt Gen Nobel Thamburaj drove down from his office at the Southern Command HQ in Pune to Mumbai to address the media. The officer, who is set to take over as the next Vice Chief of Army staff, assured reporters that 'his boys' would clear the area of terrorists in a matter of hours. As it later turned out, operations were continuing even till midnight. He revealed that the NSG had suffered casualties in the operation. • Even as the NSG commandoes were engaged in a fierce gun battle at all three locations, in an unprecedented move that left senior officers at Delhi in deep shock, the Navy held a press conference in Mumbai with its elite Marine Commandoes. The elite force, which is always kept under wraps by the Navy, narrated their entire operation, even revealing, analysts say, some of the tactics used by them. Sources said the Western Naval Commander, Vice Admiral J S Bedi authorised the conference without clearances from the Defence Ministry. This even as the main rescue operations were being carried out by NSG commandoes and a handful of Marine Commandoes (MARCOS) of the Navy - 35 in all - were part of the initial reaction team to the terror attack on Wednesday night. The MARCOS were moved out as soon as the NSG contingent arrived on the spot. The Navy came under flak after it was revealed that the terrorists used the sea route to infiltrate into the country, spurred the Defence Ministry into action and the armed forces were rapped on the knuckles for speaking out of turn. As it turned out later in statements by the NSG DG, only the NSG commandoes were carrying out the main rescue and search operations and the Army's role was to maintain an outer squadron to ensure that no terrorists escape from the spot. The ministry, which received calls from top Government officials after the statements by armed forces officers, asked the forces to keep a low profile on Thursday. Sources said top officers from both the Navy and Army HQ were told by the MoD to instruct their personnel in Mumbai to leave the talking to the Home Ministry and the National Security Guards (NSG) that actually carried out the operations. This comes after the ministry has been put into a tight spot by the Navy that went on a publicity spree after sinking a pirate 'mother vessel' in the Gulf of Aden on November 18. The incident later turned into a major embarrassment after it was revealed that the vessel was a Thai fishing vessel and 14 fishermen were missing after the Indian warship sank it. However, given the high degree of publicity given to the incident by the Navy, the MoD had little choice but to back it even after it came to light that the vessel was let off hours earlier by a UK warship due to the presence of hostages on board.
