Uri terror attack: NIA registers case

NIA would send GPS sets, recovered from terrorists, to US for forensic investigation

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday registered a case to probe the terror attack at an army installation at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 18 soldiers and injured dozens others after four Pakistani militants stormed their base.

The NIA took over the investigation from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, which had registered a case on Sunday, and began probe by collecting evidence available with the Army formation at Uri, 102 kms from here.

Besides the arms and ammunition recovery, two mobile sets were recovered from the four terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group and two Global Positioning Systems (GPS).

Official sources said the NIA team, which was now camping at Uri, would collect the DNA samples of the four unidentified terrorists and also show their pictures to the Jaish cadres lodged in Indian jails across the country.

Two of the four bodies were charred below the waist, they said.

Sources said further that while one GPS was damaged due to the fire, experts were examining the other to ascertain the route taken by the terrorists and find out if they reiceved some help from any local.

The place where the attack took place is located barely 6 kms from the Line of Control (LoC).

The NIA team would prepare a dossier and may make a formal request to Pakistan once the identity of the four was ascertained, the sources said.

Army has also instituted an inquiry into the attack with preliminary investigation suggesting that the terrorists had entered the area at least a day before the brazen assault.

The inquiry besides ascertaining lapses, if any, would also suggest measures to prevent such attacks in the future as Pakistani-based groups were indulging more in "shallow infiltration", which means that terrorists strike the first available installation after crossing the Line of Control.

The toll in the attack had yesterday risen to 18 with one more armyman succumbing to injuries in Sunday's attack

India had reacted strongly to the deadliest attack on the Army in Jammu and Kashmir in quarter-century-old insurgency with Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemning it.