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SRINAGAR: The National Investigation Agency has taken up the investigation into the January 31 encounter in which three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were killed on the outskirts of the city, officials said on Monday.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notification on Monday directing the agency to carry out a thorough probe into the circumstances in which the three terrorists had sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir through International Border at Sambha.

Jammu and Kashmir Police has arrested five people, including a cousin of the suicide bomber who killed 40 CRPF personnel in a deadly attack last year in Pulwama.

The militants were killed in a fierce gunbattle with police at a toll plaza on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway on January 31, officials said. The militants were travelling in a truck towards the Kashmir Valley.

