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India's anti-terror agency takes over probe of terror attack on army base in Kashmir

Xinhua, September 20, 2016 Adjust font size:

India's anti-terror agency Tuesday formally took over the investigation into the deadly terror attack on an army base in Indian-controlled Kashmir Sunday, in which 18 soldiers were killed and 30 others injured.

Sources said that sleuths of the National Investigation Agency visited the terror attack site at Uri and received the blood and other samples from the four terrorists, who were shot dead in an intense three-hour-long gun battle.

"The Indian Army will soon hand over to the agency all the weapons, ammunition, maps and GPS sets recovered from the possession of the terrorists. The anti-terror sleuths are now trying to find out the identity of the terrorists and retrace the route they took to infiltrate," the sources said.

The move came a day after top Indian Ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, held a series of high-level meetings in the national capital to shape the government's response to the attack, in which 17 soldiers were killed and one more succumbed to his injuries later.

India has directly blamed Pakistan for the terror attack. While the Prime Minister has warned that "those behind the despicable attack will not go unpunished".

Home Minister Rajnath Singh has said: "Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such."

The Indian Army has also said that there are clear signs the terrorists belong to the Pakistan-based militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed as four AK-47 rifles, grenade launchers, a large number of grenades and food found in search operations bore Pakistani markings.

Kashmir has been on the boil since the killing of 22-year-old militant commander Burhan Wani by Indian security forces in July. More than 80 people have been killed and over 10,000 others injured in violence in the aftermath of the killing.

India and Pakistan have already had a bitter war of words over the civilian deaths and unrest in Kashmir, a disputed region over which both the countries have fought at least three major wars with both claiming stake to it. Endit