After Parliament recently approved a bill giving more powers to the National Investigation Agency to probe terrorist acts against Indians and Indian interests abroad, the Easter Sunday bombings case in Sri Lanka is likely to be the first case for the NIA. The amended Act gives powers to the NIA to probe terror attacks targeting Indians, Indian interests abroad and having links with India. The latest amendments will enable the NIA to additionally investigate offences related to human trafficking, counterfeit currency, manufacture or sale of prohibited arms, cyber-terrorism, and offences under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
The bill amending the NIA Act, 2008, provides for a national-level agency to investigate and prosecute offences listed in the scheduled offences. It was passed by both Houses of Parliament. Further, the Act allows for creation of special courts for the trial of scheduled offences. The NIA was set up in 2009 in the wake of the Mumbai terror attack that had claimed 166 lives. Since 2017, the Union Home Ministry has been pushing for giving more powers to the NIA to meet fresh challenges. Before the Easter Sunday bombings, India had alerted the island nation that ISIS terrorists were planning to carry out strikes there.
India had been regularly sharing intelligence inputs about a possible terror attack in Sri Lanka targeting the Indian High Commission and religious places there, officials said. The inputs to Sri Lanka were sent through diplomatic channels. Earlier, the NIA had stumbled upon videos of National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) leader Zahran Hashim during the investigation of a terror case and the videos were indicative of a terror attack on religious places as well as the Indian High Commission in Colombo. The videos showed Hashim asking youths from Sri Lanka, Tamilnadu and Kerala to establish Islamic rule in the region. After the blasts in Sri Lanka, the NIA had arrested 29-year-old Riyas A, also known as Riyas Aboobacker or Abu Dujana, a resident of Palakkad in Kerala.He is alleged to be in touch with Hashim on social media platforms, the officials said. Security of nation is more important than anything else and with the NIA getting equipped with more powers, let us hope the agency uses it to strengthen national security further.