Nearly a week after heavily armed terrorists carried out an audacious strike on the 166 field regiment camp in Nagrota area of Jammu on November 29 claiming lives of seven army personnel, the Centre has stepped in and handed over the investigation of the attack to the National Investigation Agency.
The NIA, in compliance with the instructions issued by the ministry of home affairs, re-registered the case on Wednesday under FIR 221/2016 registered under Nagrota police station in Jammu and initiated its probe by collecting evidence from the site and probing the cross border linkages. The probe is expected to focus on establishing the route taken by the terrorists to reach the army base and the point from where the infiltration took place besides establishing the cross border link to the attack to nail Pakistan's role.
The case at the Nagrota police station was registered on the basis of information received at the station on November 29 that ''some heavily armed unknown terrorists, on the directions of their foreign handlers, had 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 actions of the terrorists constitute scheduled offences under sections 16, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, which makes it a fit case for probe by the central anti-terror agency. A team of officers of the NIA shall be reaching Jammu shortly to visit the crime scene and commence the investigation. The NIA will also place the FIR before the NIA special court in Jammu.
Sources said the NIA team would collect DNA samples of the three unidentified militants and other evidence of the goods carried by them. The wireless sets recovered from the slain terrorists are expected to give the agency some leads as a similar wireless set had been recovered from Kathua giving hints on the Pakistan route used by the Nagrota attackers.
Meanwhile, the army is carrying out its own investigation into the attack pertaining to the lapses that led to the terrorists reaching the camp.
