NIA to probe terror attack in Nagrota

New Delhi: The home ministry has transferred investigations into the Nagrota terror attack case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Seven Army personnel were killed when suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed militants stormed into an Army camp last month.

Confirming this, Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi said, “The Nagrota terror attack case has been handed over to the NIA for investigation.’’

A team of officers from NIA will go to Jammu in connection with further investigations. The NIA, which lodged a new FIR in the incident, will place it before the NIA Special Court at Jammu.

“The case at the Nagrota police station was registered on the basis of information that on November 29, some heavily armed unidentified terrorists —  on the directions of their foreign handlers — entered into the Army camp at Nagrota, near the Baleeni bridge, and started indiscriminate firing upon the Army personnel with the intention to kill them,” the NIA said in a statement.

The NIA lodged the FIR under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967. Seven jawans, including two Major-rank officers, were killed while eight other were injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, a Parliamentary panel on Wednesday asked senior Home Ministry officials about repeated attacks on security establishments in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and asked what steps were taken to prevent such brazen acts of terrorists.

The meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, headed by Congress leader and former Home Minister P Chidambaram, asked a team of top officials led by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi the reasons for repeated terror attacks on security installations.

The committee also wanted to know what preventive actions have been taken by the government to check such attempts.In his reply, the Union Home Secretary said the strike at the army camp in Nagrota was a terror attack carried out by terrorists belonging to Pakistan-based militant groups.