National Investigation Agency May Soon Have Powers To Probe Attacks On Indians Abroad

The Centre is all set to amend the National Investigation Act, 2008, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, to grant the National Investigation Agency powers to launch a parallel probe into terror attacks on Indians and their properties abroad.

The amended Act will also give legal protection to sleuths for undercover operations.

PTI

A clause is also being inserted in UAPA to designate individuals under the banned list, said officials.

Home minister Rajnath Singh had hinted during the first National Conference of Investigating Agencies that the government was working to strengthen UAPA and NI Act. The Home Ministry will soon make public the amendments vetted by Law Ministry and seek public opinions on the amendments before introducing them in Parliament.

The move comes amid reports on Wednesday that Afghanistan security forces arrested two suspects planning to target the Indian consulate in Jalalabad. The consulate at Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad were attacked earlier this year leading to death of nearly a dozen suspects and civilians.

indiantravellers

Once the Act is amended, NIA will be able to conduct a parallel probe into any attacks on Indian consulates, properties and individuals, added officials.

NIA had mooted the proposal in 2014, while urging the government to give it broader powers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has similar powers, which it exercised to conduct a parallel probe after the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which six American nationals were among those killed.

BCCL/representational image

Besides other amendments in UAPA, the Home ministry has proposed that any individual suspected of having terror links can be included in the list of terrorist entities. At present, there are 39 groups in the list of banned terrorist organisations under Section 35 of the UAPA, the latest one to have been added was NSCN (Khaplang) that carried out the audacious attack on the Indian Army last year.

National Investigation Agency

A senior official on the condition of anonymity said, ¡°the amendments may also help the government to issue a ban against terror chieftains like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.¡±

While Saeed is accused in the Mumbai attacks, JeM chief Azhar was named for the Pathankot and Uri attacks. Both JeM and LeT are in the list of banned entities under UAPA