Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah on Monday saidthat the National Investigation Agency (NIA) needs the power to investigate theterror acts related to Indians and Indian interests abroad. Shah made thestatement while replying to the debate on the NIA (Amendment) Bill, 2019 togive powers to give more teeth to NIA.

Shah said in Lok Sabha during the debate that cases underNIA have been expedited and 90%of the cases have reached conclusion. Hestressed that NIA is doing an excellent job in controlling terrorism and astrong NIA is needed to wipe out terrorism from the country.

Allaying opposition's apprehensions on misuse of NIA andother security agencies, Shah quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said thatthe BJP-led government at the Centre is governed by the rule of law and allinvestigative agencies follow the procedure established by law. He reassuredthe House that NIA would not be misused by the governmentReiterating PM Modi'spolicy of 'zero tolerance' against terrorism, the Home Minister said that"terrorism is terrorism, it's neither right nor left."

Shah asserted that perpetrators of terrorist acts need to bepunished and will be punished."We care for the widows of our martyredsoldiers, we care for their sacrifices. Thus, it is important to give morepowers to NIA to investigate terror-related crimes abroad and bring justice tothese widows," Shah said.Replying to issues raised by opposition leadersthat Pakistan has not signed the SAARC agreement to tackle terrorism, whichwill make the NIA less effective in tracking terror cases emanating from Pakistan,Shah replied saying that India cannot hold the NIA Bill hostage to Pakistan'sdecision to not sign the SAARC pact. Shah added that Pakistan will have to signthe pact under international pressure in future. He said that till Pakistandoesn't sign the pact, there are many other ways to tackle terrorism emanatingfrom Pakistan.

While taking part in the debate on the bill, Minister ofState for Home Affairs, GK Reddy, reinforced government's commitment tomaintaining the federal structure of the governance and said that state policeteams and other agencies would work in coordination with NIA in terror-relatedmatters. There would be no encroachment by the Centre on the activities of thestate machinery.

He added that the multi-agency centre would be strengthenedand sharing of information between Centre and States on terrorism-relatedmatters would be smoothened in the coming days. There would be nodiscrimination among the agencies. Reddy noted that terrorism has no religion,no caste, no gender and it is against humanity.