MUMBAI, June 16 Mumbai's police chief failed to lead his force from the front during last year's attacks on the city, a committee said on Tuesday as it released partial findings of a probe into how the crisis was handled.

The committee, headed by a high-ranking former Indian home ministry official, said senior officers had told them that Hasan Ghafoor did not guide them adequately or ask about ongoing operations during the 60-hour standoff.

“During the whole operation, he (Ghafoor) was stationed at only one location near Hotel Trident,” according to the report, which was presented to lawmakers at the Maharashtra state assembly, sitting in Mumbai.

The report was not released in full for fear of prejudicing the ongoing trial of one of the alleged gunmen, state home minister Jayant Patil was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

“There was lack of coordinated and visible control due to which the message went to the public that police were ineffective in handling the situation,” the report said, according to the PTI.

Even though Ghafoor was in touch with senior officers trying to deal with strikes against multiple targets across the south of the city, colleagues did not feel they were part of a united force, it added.

Ghafoor last weekend became the latest high-profile figure to lose his job after the November 26-29 attacks, which left 166 people dead and more than 300 injured.

The former chief minister of the western Indian state, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and India's interior minister Shivraj Patil stepped down in the wake of the carnage.

The report also said Ghafoor was responsible for procedural errors in the police and emergency service response to the attacks, but conceded that only a paramilitary force could have handled the “war-like” situation.

Indian media said that three opposition lawmakers were suspended after angry protests calling for the full report to be published, while state cabinet members thought the document was biased against Ghafoor.—AFP