On a day when Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the security again in Jammu and Kashmir, the NIA began its investigation and began collecting evidence.
The National Investigation Agency on Tuesday registered a case to probe the terror attack at the army installation in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in which 18 soldiers were killed and dozens others injured after four Pakistani militants stormed the 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.
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.
Official sources said the NIA team, which was now camping at Uri, would collect the DNA samples of the four unidentified terrorists and their pictures would be shown to Jaish cadres lodged in various jails of the state as well as other parts of the country.
Two of the four bodies are charred below the waist, they said.
The sources said while one GPS was damaged due to the fire, the other was being examined with the help of technical experts to ascertain the route taken by the terrorists and whether some help was extended to them by any local.
The place where the attack took place is located barely 6 kilometre from the Line of Control.
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 the terrorists had entered the area at least a day before mounting 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 on Monday risen to 18 with one more army man succumbing to injuries in Sunday’s attack.
Earlier in the day, Home Minister Rajnath Singh again reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir with top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, in the wake of the terror attack in Uri.
Doval and top officials of the ministries of home and defence, paramilitary forces and chiefs of intelligence agencies briefed Singh on the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley as well as along the Line of Control, official sources said.
The presence of the foreign secretary in the meeting is significant as government plans to launch a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan. Sources said the home minister took stock of the steps taken to check infiltration along the LoC and the International Border with Pakistan.
The home minister and the top officials also reviewed the security situation across the country, including Punjab which had faced two similar terror attacks early this year.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi is in Srinagar to assess the ground situation in Kashmir.
Image: Guards take their stand at the Uri base a day after it was attacked and 18 army men lost their lives in the attack. Photograph: PTI
