MHA hands over J&K's Reasi terror attack case to NIA

The Union Home Ministry on Monday, 17 June, handed over the probe into the recent terror attack on a bus in Jammu and Kashmir to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), officials said.

Ten people, including three women were killed, and 41 injured as a bus carrying pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi plunged into a deep gorge after an ambush by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district on 9 June.

The terrorists opened fire at the 53-seater bus when it was en route from Shiv Khori temple to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra.

Officials said the NIA would look into a larger conspiracy in the attack.

The decision came a day after Union home minister Amit Shah reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir and preparations for the annual Amarnath yatra in two back-to-back meetings in New Delhi.

The meetings were called in the wake of the terror attack on the bus in Reasi district and a few other terror incidents in the Union Territory.

On 11 June, terrorists fired at a joint checkpost of the Rashtriya Rifles and police at Chattergalla in Bhaderwah while a search party in the Gandoh area of Doda district was attacked on 12 June, resulting in injuries to seven security personnel, including a policeman.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too reviewed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir on 13 June where he directed officials to deploy the "full spectrum of counter-terror capabilities" after a spate of terror incidents, including the attack on a bus carrying pilgrims.

Shah on Sunday said the fight against terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is in its decisive phase and recent incidents show that terrorism has been forced to shrink from highly organised acts of violence to a mere proxy war.

He also directed security agencies to implement area domination and zero-terror plans in the Jammu division as they did in Kashmir to achieve success.

National security advisor Ajit Doval, Lt governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, army chief general Manoj Pande, army chief-designate Lt. general Upendra Dwivedi, Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka, CRPF director general Anish Dayal Singh, BSF director general Nitin Agarwal, Jammu and Kashmir director general of police R R Swain and other top security officials attended both the meetings held by Shah.