NIA to assist probe, police teams fanned out
New Delhi:Terming the Bangalore blast as a “terror attack,” the Centre on Monday said the case could be handed over to the NIA and asked Karnatka government to beef up secu-rity by increasing CCTV surveillance in the IT city.
Emerging from a high-level security review meeting, a day after the low intensity blast in Bangalore left a woman dead, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said an idea about the nature of the blast and who could be behind it could be ascertained only after a proper probe. One woman was killed and three persons were injured when a low-intensity bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Bangalore last night. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said, “It was a terror attack.”
He said investigators were trying to piece together the leads and efforts were on to find out the people behind the blast. “It is too early to say anything on it. Investigation is on,” he said when asked who could be behind the explosion. The Home Minister said the Centre would provide all possible help to Karnataka in the Bangalore blast case and asked the state government to install adequate number of CCTVs in prime areas of the IT city.
“I appeal to the Karnataka government to install CCTV cameras as much as possible in as many places. It is too early to say who is behind this,” he told reporters here. Singh also appealed to all state governments, particularly those having major cities, to install maximum possible number of CCTV cameras in all prime locations.
“The central government is ready to provide all assistance to the state government in this endeavour,” he said. Asked about the possibility of handing over the blast probe to National Investigation Agency, Singh said a decision on it would be taken only after collecting the relevant information. “If necessary, we will hand over the investigation to the NIA,” he said. Condemning the blast, the Home Minister said the central government would provide all necessary assistance to the state government in its probe.
The Home Minister said he reviewed the security situation in Karnataka and Assam, where NDFB militants killed more than 70 people last week, with top officials, including National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Union Home Security Anil Goswami, Director of Intelligence Bureau Asif Ibrahim. Meanwhile, Law Minister Sadananda Gowda and Chemical Minister Ananth Kumar met Rajnath and discussed with him the situation in the city in the aftermath of the blasts.
The National Inves-tigation Team would assist in the probe into the blast in front of a restaurant here that killed a woman and police teams have been sent to Pune and Chennai to investigate terror links.
A high-level meeting was held by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah this morning to take stock of the security situation in the wake of a blast. It was attended by Home Minister K J George, DGP L Pachau, city Police Commissioner M N Reddi and others, as investigators continued to gather evide-nce on the blast triggered by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said it was a “terror attack”.
George said the National Investigation Team would assist the city police in investigation, adding, “…we have to see what is the cause who is behind it”
Footages from the CCTVs installed in buil-dings around the blast site located in the heart of the city were being examined, police officials said.Probe teams had been sent to Pune and Chennai, where blasts had occurred earlier, DCP (Central) Sandeep Patil said. Inves-tigation was being done “from all angles”, Patil said..(PTI)