Blaming "total intelligence failure" for the deaths of 19 tribals including minors in the June 27 anti-Naxal operation, AICC general secretary B K Hariprasad said the 12-member fact finding team of state Congress leaders had submitted its final report on the incident.
The report will be submitted to Gandhi.
Though Hariprasad refused to share the content of the final report, there are indications that it has seconded the findings of the preliminary report, which had found that at least seven minors were killed during the operation and that most of the 19 killed were innocents.
"Whatever has happened there is wrong. It's a total failure of their state government. Their intelligence totally failed. They could not assess the situation," Hariprasad said.
When pointed out that the Home Minister had backed CRPF saying the central force had been very "transparent" and "upfront" over the issue, the AICC general secretary said, "whatever Home Minister has said, it is on the basis of the report given to him by the state government. But we will also brief the Home Minister about what happened there."
Striking a different note from the government on the incident, Hariprasad had earlier said the security operation was a "botch-up" and resulted in the loss of lives of innocent tribals and minors.
While the Home Minister had said that all those killed in the encounter were adult barring one, who was 15 to 16 years old, the report says that seven of the victims were minors.
"Those killed also included minors...If children have been killed there should not be any pardon...In the name of tackling Maoists, innocent tribals should not be victimised," Hariprasad had said.
