NOT HANDING OVER DINANAGAR PROBE TO NIA AFFECTS PUNJAB

NEW DELHI: Punjab has apparent ly paid a heavy price for its reluc tance to hand over the probe into the July 27 Dinanagar attack to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), with the state fac ing a similar attack in Pathankot on Saturday.

The Centre has now announced that the NIA, established after the Mumbai attacks to probe terror cases, will investigate the Pathankot incident. But a formal order is yet to be issued.

On July 27, three gunmen had entered India from Pakistan and attacked a bus as well as a police post at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur dis trict. Despite the Centre’s decision to transfer the probe to the NIA the Punjab government — under pressure from the state police — maintained that it was capable of handling it on its own.

“A team of NIA officials is in Pathankot along with technical support staffers. Since the formal order for handing over probe to the NIA will take some time, as of now they will assist the Punjab police,” said a home ministry official.

The NIA team will also help preserve evidence. This assumes significance in light of the fact that allegedmishandlingof Gpsdevices recovered by Punjab police from the Dinanagar attackers had resulted in some of their data getting lost.

Almost a month ago, the Centre had again suggested that the Dinanagar attack probe be handed over to the NIA — but in vain. “Handing over the probe to us immediately after an attack helps us probe the case better. With the passage of time, many leads get lost The Udhampur attack was handed over to us immediately, and we man aged to demolish the over-ground support system of Lashkar-e-taiba in the Valley,” an NIA official said on the condition of anonymity.