Pulwama terror attack: National Investigation Agency (NIA) takes over case

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the Pulwama terrorist attack case from the Jammu and Kashmir Police amid mounting pressure to collect comprehensive evidence to nail Pakistan’s direct involvement in the suicide bombing that left 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel dead.

An NIA spokesman said that director general YC Modi, along with a team of officers including two inspectors general, a deputy inspector general and a superintendent of police, visited the site of the attack. Officers of CRPF and local police who were also present at the site, about 40 kilometres from Srinagar, briefed the NIA chief about the progress made in the case.

The NIA re-registered a case that the Jammu and Kashmir Police had registered at the Awantipora police station on February 14 after a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a CRPF bus, believed to be the last in the 78-vehicle convoy having onboard more than 2,500 personnel who were on their way from Jammu to Srinagar. The NIA team had visited the spot following the incident, as it does after every terrorist attack, for picking up leads from the ground. Proscribed Pakistan-based ter rorist g roup Jaish-e-Mohammad had claimed responsibility for the terrorist strike.