Home Minister Shivraj Patil has renewed efforts to have in place a central investigation-cum-intelligence agency on the lines of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, in the aftermath of the deadly blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad in the last two days.
Patil, who reviewed the situation across Gujarat, said he would try to explain to the states about the need to have a single federal agency in the light of the Ahmedabad and Banglore blasts.
Though central agencies are unable to identify the organisation behind the attacks, they can clearly see a common mastermind behind these.
“It not only becomes difficult and cumbersome to conduct investigations in such cases as so many agencies are involved but the follow-up suffers,” said a source in the home ministry arguing for a single agency.
Patil has called a meeting of the chief ministers followed by the police chiefs of all the states next week to review the security situation in the wake of the recent blasts.
The home minister held a meeting with National Security Advisor MK Narayanan and other senior officials before both of them briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the blasts.
Official sources said the prime minister is likely to visit Ahmedabad tomorrow.
Patil once again used the blasts to raise the need to have a national federal agency to tackle crimes like terrorism, narcotic smuggling, counterfeit currency and human trafficking.
Though the idea had been floated during the rule of the previous NDA government, most of the states in the past have rejected it fearing that such an agency would impinge upon their domain of law and order.
A team of the National Security Guard, an elite force that has expertise in disposing off explosives, has been sent to Ahmedabad.
