NIA takes over Pulwama attack probe

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday took over the probe into the February 14 terror 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 terror strike in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, an NIA spokesperson here said.

NIA Director General YC 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 terror attack, the second such in three decades of militancy in the state.