No red tape in probe of Mumbai attack: Roemer

New Delhi: There were no red tapes, no turf battles, in investigating the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks when FBI agents worked extensively with their counterparts in the Indian police and intelligence agencies, US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer said.

Maintaining that citizens benefit when law enforcement officials work together to bring to justice terrorists and criminals who target innocent civilians, he said agents from both the countries testified in the trial of Ajmal Kasab in

order to bring him to justice.

Sharing his thoughts after the conclusion of a five-day 'Law Enforcement Executive Development' seminar focusing on counter terrorism, crisis response and mega city policing, organised by FBI in partnership with the Home Ministry, Roemer said "no red tape, no turf battles just investigators standing shoulder-to-shoulder in cooperation at a time of crisis".

"Teams of forensic specialists pulled fingerprints from improvised explosive devices. Damaged GPS devices were wired back together by FBI engineers to obtain valuable data. Agents from both the countries testified in the trial of Ajmal Kasab in order to bring him to justice," he said.

The seminar was held last week in Los Angeles, California, at the facilities of the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department.

Thirty-nine senior police executives from fourteen central and fifteen state agencies across India were invited by the Ministry of Home Affairs to participate in the exchange, a US Embassy release said on Monday.

Among the practical exercises and topics discussed were crisis management and response, evidence recovery and processing, post-blast investigation and evidence recovery orange County Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (an

overview of a forensics lab performing all aspects of digital evidence recovery, collection, and analysis).

Los Angeles was selected as the focal point for the seminar because of the international scope of policing and security issues it faces and the infrastructure and partnerships it has established to confront these challenges.

Los Angeles shares many of the same policing and security challenges as India's mega cities, such as organised crime, large economic offenses, mass transit policing, maritime security and special event security planning, it said.