NEW DELHI, Dec 16: The Indian government on Tuesday sought parliament’s approval for a national agency to investigate major militant attacks such as last month’s assaults on Mumbai.

The proposed agency would come after decades of opposition from India’s 29 states, which have long argued such a body would allow the national government to usurp their local law enforcement powers.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram introduced the bill which, if turned into law, would establish a National Investigations Agency, styled on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“There have been innumerable incidents of attacks, not only in militancy and insurgency-affected areas... but also in the form of terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in various parts of the hinterland and major cities,” Chidambaram said.

New Delhi has said militants who were trained and armed in Pakistan staged the November 26 attacks, in which gunmen killed 163 people. Nine of the attackers were also killed.

Chidambaram also sought the approval of the lower house for new anti-terror legislation which would give provincial and federal police increased powers to investigate militant attacks.

The bill would allow the “speedy investigation, prosecution and trial of cases related to terrorism,” he added.

India’s existing Central Bureau of Investigations has federal powers but it needs approval from state governments before launching major probes.

The country’s security agencies, which have long been accused of in-fighting and poor intelligence gathering, came in for fierce criticism after the Mumbai attacks.—AFP