Akhilesh assures all help for NIA hub in UP

Lucknow, April 24 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Tuesday assured National Investigation Agency chief S.C. Sinha all help in setting up a hub in the state capital.

Noting the move to set up the hub would go a long way in tackling the menace of terror, Akhilesh said the state has suffered from the scourge of terrorism many times in the past and the Samajwadi Party (SP) government would do all it could to help setting up the NIA's regional office in the state.

Sinha, who called on the chief minister at his office here, briefed him on the NIA's activities and informed him that NIA state offices have already come up at Hyderabad and Guwahati.

He also informed Akhilesh that from the pattern of recent terrorist attacks in different parts of the country, it was clear that these attacks are planned centrally and executed in a very coordinated manner.

Officials from the home department and the chief minister's office who were present at the meeting called it a very "promising and positive" one, where "many long term issues were discussed."

The NIA was created under the NIA Act of 2008, and is mandated at the national level, to investigate and prosecute offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India.