The Home Ministry is waiting for the go-ahead from the Army to take over the investigation into the recent terror attack at the Nagrota camp, in which two officers and five soldiers lost their lives.
An Army source said the force would okay an NIA investigation if it came with a “specific brief”, but made it clear that it was for the Army to investigate the “operational and tactical aspects”.
Though the Home Ministry can suo motu transfer the investigation of any terror attack to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), it has to seek the Army’s approval in this case as the attack happened in an Army camp.
After the attack at the Uri camp on September 18, the burnt bodies of the four terrorists were buried by the Army.
As reported by The Hindu earlier, the government’s decision then to hand over the investigation to the NIA had not gone down well with some in the Army.
Though the Army was quick to name the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad as being behind the attack, the NIA probe so far has not found any evidence to support the claim. A senior Home Ministry official said the modus operandi indicated that it was more likely another Pakistan-based outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba.
“The Army is reluctant to hand over the probe to the NIA. The October 6 attack at the Handwara camp is also being probed by the NIA. But we did not face much resistance then as the terrorists were killed at the gates, before they could enter the premises,” said a senior Home Ministry official.
The Army source said the NIA had no mandate to investigate the tactics and the response of the Army in the Nagrota attack. Their job was to collect evidence and nail the terrorist outfit behind the attack. “The focus of the Army’s investigation is different and we have a different brief. Our Court of Inquiry will establish lapses if any and the commissions and omissions,” said the Army source.
The recoveries made from the three attackers a Nagrota pointed to the role of JeM’s Al-Shohada Brigade, or Shaheed Afzal Guru Squad, formed in 2013. Though the Army was tightlipped, two loose pages bearing Urdu text could be seen near the bodies of the militants in a leaked photograph.
An attack from the rear
A group of heavily armed terrorists in police uniform attacked an Army unit located three kilometres from the Corps Headquarters at Nagrota in the early hours on November 29. The terrorists had used the cover of elephant grass and entered from the rear of the camp. Army sources said there is a forest area behind the camp and the terrorists entered from there. It is learnt that they cut the barbed wire and used ropes to get into the camp.
