NEW DELHI: The home ministry has placed a company of Border Security Force (BSF), comprising around 100 personnel, at the disposal of National Investigation Agency (NIA) to help it with raids and searches conducted as part of the Burdwan blasts probe .

Senior officials of the home ministry, when asked if BSF’s help was offered to NIA due to suspected lack of cooperation from West Bengal Police, insisted that state police personnel, though willing to assist the central probe, were not adequately trained and equipped to aid a professional terror investigation.

“BSF is better armed and equipped to handle the risks associated with terror searches and raids. So, with the help of the West Bengal government, one of the BSF companies deployed in the state was asked to assist the NIA is searches and raids being undertaken as part of the Burdwan blast probe,” a senior home ministry official told TOI.

Meanwhile, the NIA on Thursday recovered a sack containing 40 improvised hand grenades from a store room in a house in Burdwan where an explosion had killed two persons on October 2. The NIA investigators, along with Burdwan district police, searched the house of one Rezaul Karim and recovered sacks, from which an IED fell.

National Security Guard (NSG) personnel, who are also assisting the NIA in the case, were immediately called in. NSG men along with sniffer dogs found at least 40 improvised hand grenades.

