Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab reluctant on NIA probe

NEW DELHI: The home ministry handed over the probe of the terrorist strike in Udhampur to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) using suo-moto powers and may do the same with the Gurdaspur attack probe after both Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab have showed reluctance in transferring these probes to the central agency .
The Home ministry had last week telephonically asked the J&K government to transfer the Udhampur case to the NIA but there was no reply from the state government, officials said.

The ministry had also asked the Punjab government, in a letter written on Thursday last week, to transfer the Gurdaspur case to the NIA, they said. “We have got no reply yet. The Punjab government is not inclined to transfer the case to the NIA and wants to crack it itself. They had also not accepted the help of the Army or the NSG during the counterterror operation in Dinanagar last month."

The reluctance on part of the state governments to transfer the cases to the NIA comes at a time when India wants to prepare a watertight dossier for the National Security Adviserlevel talks with Pakistan citing the Udhampur and Gurdaspur cases.

A senior official said it is only proper that the NIA should handle the probe since the terrorists involved in both the cases are Pakistanis, the attacks have international ramifications and the central agency is better equipped to seek expert help from the United States to crack the GPS devices seized from the terrorists as well as send letters rogatory to Pakistan.

“Punjab Police is claiming that it can use its sources to identify the three terrorists killed in Gurdaspur and hence some time was granted to them. But the NIA will be better equipped to take the probe to its logical conclusion and nail Pakistan's role," the official said.