New Delhi, Feb 20: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday took over the probe into the February 14 suicide attack in Pulwama from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, officials said.
The agency has re-registered the case and formed a team to investigate the audacious attack in which 49 CRPF personnel were killed, an NIA spokesperson here said.
NIA Director General Y C Modi, accompanied by senior officers of the agency, visited the site of the attack, 33 km from Srinagar, where he was briefed by local police and the CRPF.
The state police had registered a case at the Awantipora police station on February 14 after a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a CRPF bus, which was part of a 78-vehicle convoy carrying over 2,500 personnel on their way from Jammu to Srinagar.
The NIA has already gathered explosive material from the blast site in Lethpora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir and has been involved in the questioning of around a dozen people detained by police following the bombing, officials said.
The agency has also met senior police, intelligence and army officers to gather whatever evidence they have, they said.
The NIA will probe the planning and execution of the attack, the second such in three decades of militancy in the state. In 2000, a 17-year-old Kashmiri boy had blown himself outside the Srinagar-based army cantonment, killing two Army-men.
On Monday, three Jaish militants were killed in a 16-hour operation in Pulwama’s Pinglana area, 12 km from the spot of the February 14 attack. An Army major and four security personnel also lost their lives.
Police and the Army announced Tuesday that these militants were responsible for last Thursday’s attack.
