A two-member committee set up to probe the 26/11 attacks got to work on Wednesday, with former Union Home Secretary Ram Pradhan visiting four of the attack sites - hotels Trident and Oberoi, Cama Hospital and CST station - to try and assess the route taken by the terrorists.

“We had a very vague idea of the route they took and any investigation would have been incomplete without getting a fair idea of that,” Pradhan said.

“Mumbai is a huge city with a number of roads and lanes. Not many living outside the city has a good knowledge of its geography. Another purpose of this visit was to clarify such doubts,” he said.

Pradhan was accompanied by policemen, some of whom had been at the spot during the attacks. “It is always a good idea to be escorted by the local police, who have a good understanding about the roads of the city,” said Pradhan.

The committee will draft a report on the visits and submit it to the state government by the weekend. “We will report whatever information we have gathered. This can later help us during the investigations as we do not have a sequence of moves made by the terrorists,” said Pradhan.

The state government had constituted the committee in the last week of December. Retired IPS officer V. Balachandran is the other member on the panel. The committee’s task is to probe the strike and fix the responsibility for slips in handling the situation in its aftermath.

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had put forth the idea in the Assembly on the last day of the Nagpur winter session. Chavan had said that the panel would investigate the incident and the management of the ensuing crisis by the police officers and the state administration.