Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has sought a detailed report from the Army on the terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri.
As per a report in India Today, Parrikar has requested an explanation as to how terrorists successfully entered the high security battalion headquarters without being spotted.
The media house quoted sources as saying that the Parrikar is concerned that despite intelligence inputs how the militants were allowed to enter the base unchallenged.
Also, the Army is required to answer as to why unarmed soldiers were housed in tents. They have already filed an initial report on the terror strike.
In wee hours on Sunday, four militants of Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) had stormed Army base in Uri Sector, killing 18 soldiers and injuring several others.
All the four militants were also killed.
Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which formally took over the probe into the Uri attack on Tuesday, is seeking to establish the identities of the attackers and also examining the Global Positioning Systems and other evidence recovered from them, said official sources.
Informed sources said that the six-member NIA team headed by an Inspector General and a Deputy Inspector General reached Uri town on Monday evening.
But the NIA team visited the Uri army camp only on Tuesday.
The NIA team, which took over the case from Jammu and Kashmir Police, had registered an FIR late on Monday following orders from the Union Home Ministry.
The team has taken charge of the articles recovered from the four suicide attackers who were killed in a gunfight with security forces on Sunday.
The items include two Global Positioning Systems (GPS), one of which was charred while the other is intact, according to sources.
The team has also photographed the faces of two of the terrorists, the sources said, as per IANS.
On the other hand, Western Army Commander Lt Gen Surinder Singh today visited border areas of Jammu region and asked troops to ensure high degree of alertness and operational preparedness.
During the visit, he took stock of the security apparatus in the sensitive areas and complimented the forces in successfully maintaining a high state of vigil, a defence spokesman said.
The Army Commander reviewed the deployment in the entire region and appreciated efforts being made by all the security agencies to enhance the levels of preparedness, he said.
Gen Singh, who took over as General Officer Commanding-in -Chief of Western Command only three days back, emphasized on the need for ensuring high degree of alertness and operational preparedness, the spokesman said, as per PTI.
In a related development, two infiltration bids were made from across the border in Kashmir today but Army foiled the attempts killing some of the terrorists while losing a jawan.
The attempts to cross the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri and Nowgam sectors came even as Pakistani troops violated ceasefire and fired at Indian positions in Uri sector.
"Two infiltration bids by militants from across the Line of Control(LoC) have been foiled in Uri and Nowgam sectors today. At both places the operations are in progress," an Army spokesman said in Srinagar.
The spokesman refused to comment on the number of militants killed in the ongoing operations so far, saying details will be made public in due course.
He, however, said one soldier was killed in the operation in Nowgam sector.
Army sources in Delhi which had initially put the number of terrorists killed at 10 later clarified that the extent of casualties can be ascertained only after the retrieval of the bodies from the dense jungles and that the operations were still underway.
The sources said a group of 15 terrorists had attempted to infiltrate into Indian territory through the LoC.
As the government mulled various options on India's response to the cross-border terror attack on Sunday in which 18 jawans were killed, a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has been convened tomorrow.
(With Agency inputs)
