NIA Probes Uri Attack, NC Says "Conspiracy"

SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over probe into the deadly attack on the Army’s base camp in north Kashmir’s Uri which left at least 18 jawans dead on Sunday.

According to officials, a team of NIA visited the site of attack on Tuesday and collected DNA samples of the four suspected militants gunned down during the Sunday’s gunfight which sparked outrage across the country.

The NIA team has also reportedly collected the GPS devices carried by the suspected militants as well as other materials, including maps and eatables, which will be examined to trace the origin of suspects who have not been identified yet.

Reports suggest the agency is also examining the cause of loopholes in the security set up at the base camp in Uri near 12 Brigade, one of the highly fortified areas along the Line of Control in Kashmir, despite intelligence inputs about the possibility of such an attack.

There are reports that the NIA, which has registered a case into the incident, is examining the role of a ‘mole’ in the attack who probably leaked out information about the security set-up at the base to the attackers, although these reports could not be independently verified.

The attack, one of the deadliest on the Army in Kashmir over the last 27 years of conflict, has sparked a war of words between India and Pakistan, bringing down relations between the two countries to an all-time low in recent past.

However, while the attack has evoked sharp condemnation across the country and calls for ‘tough action’ against Pakistan, people in the Kashmir Valley, including the political parties, are cynical about the timing of the attack.

The National Conference, the largest Opposition party in J&K legislature, termed the attack as a ‘conspiracy’ and its timing ‘suspicious’ because it coincided with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s address to the UN General Assembly on human rights violations in Kashmir.

“Such things have happened in past in Kashmir and we all know how innocent Sikhs were butchered in Chattisinghpora village in South Kashmir in March 2000 when the then United States President Bill Clinton was scheduled to visit India," additional general secretary of National Conference, Mustafa Kamal, said.

He said there is a "vast network of Indian security agencies in Kashmir and we can’t deny this fact that the Uri attack may be a conspiracy to foil Pakistan’s attempts to raise Kashmir issue at United Nations".