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Updated: Feb 20, 2019 18:49 IST

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday took over the probe into the February 14 terror attack on a CRPF convoy in Pulwama from the Jammu and Kashmir police, officials said.

The suicide bombing killed 40 CRPF troopers and injured five at Lethpora Pulwama last week.

An NIA spokesman confirmed that the NIA has transferred the Pulwama suicide bombing case. Top NIA officials including its Director General NIA, Y C Modi also visited the spot on Wednesday.

“The Director General of NIA along with a team of officers including two IGs, DIG and SP visited the place of occurrence of the Feb 14 incident. He was briefed by the officers about the progress made in investigation so far,’’ the spokesman said.

On Thursday, a 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar from Gundibagh Pulwama rammed an explosive laden Maruti Eeco van into a bus in the CRPF convoy. Since then police and NIA has jointly been investigating the case. Officials said that soon after the suicide attack, police had registered a case before it was transferred to the NIA on Wednesday.

The place where the suicide bomber rammed the vehicle into the convoy is still closed for the traffic and forces are not allowing anybody to go near the spot. DG NIA also met top army, police and CRPF officials.

Soon after the attack, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and NIA teams visited the spot and collected crucial evidences about the attack and also came to conclusion that militants had used RDX in the vehicle which was the main reason for the high causalities. In a joint press conference, Army, Police and CRPF officials on Tuesday said that they have got certain leads into the attack.

After the attack, police and army started rounding up people in south Kashmir and police sources said that more than two dozen youths were picked up from different parts of the region.

A team from automobile manufacturer Maruti Suzuki is also helping the NIA to determine the model and year of production of the Maruti Eeco vehicle that was used in the suicide bombing, officials said.

Also read: ‘Will kill anyone who picks up gun in Kashmir Valley,’ says Army

On Tuesday, 15 Corps commander, Lieutenant General Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon said that in less than 100 hours (from Thursday’s attack), the forces had eliminated the Jaish e Mohammad leadership, mostly Pakistanis, in the Valley which was being handled by JeM from Pakistan.