After amendment NIA set to test waters in Afghanistan

New Delhi, Sep 07: A team of the National Investigation Agency will travel to Afghanistan to probe the Kabul Gurudwara attack case.

On March 25, terrorists stormed into the Gurdwara in Shor Bazar area in Kabul and fired indiscriminately. 27 devotees were killed in the attack, while several others were injured. In the attack an Indian citizen, Tian Singh was also killed.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic State Khorasan. The NIA had said that as per the preliminary investigation, one Muhsin from Kasargod in Kerala is suspected to be involved in the attack. The case was registered under the provisions of Section 6(8) of the NIA act.
This is the first case in which NIA has registered outside the country.

As per the amendment, the NIA can probe terror cases which are committed at any place outside India against Indian citizens or those cases that affect the interest of India.

It may be recalled that in June 2019, an amendment was made to Schedule 4 of the UAPA which allowed the NIA to designate an individual suspected to have terrorist links as a terrorist. Currently, only organisations are designated as terrorist organisations.

The NIA came into existence in 2009 following the Mumbai 26/11 attack. The proposed amendments are under consideration since 2017. The same was proposed to give the agency more teeth and also a wider scope in the wake of fresh challenges emerging.