Mumbai, November 30
A seven-member FBI team was detained at the Chhatrapati Shivaji airport here due to some “miscommunication” between officials as it arrived to probe Wednesday’s terror strike but was allowed entry after it provided a list of forensic equipment it was carrying.
Authorities at the airport came in for a surprise when a special plane carrying the FBI team and special forensic equipment landed in the city, official sources said.
The team was detained by the Customs and Immigration authorities as it had neither sought permission to arrive nor had made a request in advance for bringing in the forensic equipment, they said.
Immediately, after being not allowed permission, the FBI team got in touch with their Mission in New Delhi who in turn contacted officials in External Affairs Ministry.
Finally, the issue was resolved and the team was allowed to come in but only after providing the list of equipment that the team were carrying, the sources said.
They attributed this incident to miscommunication between the two sides and added that if prior information was available, the authorities would have placed a liaison officer to receive the team.
The FBI would be investigating the case from its side as six American nationals were killed in the three-day-long shootouts.
It was not immediately clear whether the FBI had also registered a case in the matter as it had done in the IC-814 hijacking case of Indian Airlines plane which carried a US national Jennir Moorie.
— PTI
