Jaitley questions NIA efficiency in 26/11 investigations

Ranchi, Nov 29 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Arun Jaitley Sunday questioned the efficiency of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in probing the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and noted that it was a US agency which had arrested two men allegedly involved in the attacks.

"The NIA was constituted to investigate the 26/11 attack on Mumbai. Eleven months after the attack, it was FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) of United States which revealed the role of (terror suspects David Coleman) Headley and (Tahawwur Hussain) Rana. The investigating agency lacks efficiency," Jaitley said at a press conference here.

The BJP leader said the NIA was constituted to investigate the 26/11 attacks, not to help in trial of Kasab, and alleged the central government headed by Congress was "soft" on internal security.

"What kind of foolproof measures have been adopted that Headley and Rana visited different parts of the country and the intelligence agencies failed to track their movement and know their motive. What is surprising is that their role has been revealed by the FBI of US," he said.

Told of Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken's statement that L.K. Advani was promoted to the post of deputy prime minister after the Dec 13, 2001 attack on parliament, while on the other hand, union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh were shunted after the 26/11 attack, Jaitley dismissed it as "superficial logic".

Deshmukh has been accommodated in the central government, he said, adding the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had arrested the attackers on parliament and a court awarded death penalty to mastermind Afzal Guru but the present government "does not have guts" to execute the death penalty.

On Maoist issue, he claimed the central government has run out of ideas of how to deal with Maoist menace and there are contradictory statements over tackling the problem.