NEW DELHI (TIP): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has found similarities in the Pathankot terror attack and last year’s July 27 Dinanagar attack in which militants had attacked a police st-ation. To probe it further, the agency has asked the Punjab police to provide details of the Dinanagar case.

Three heavily-armed militants in Army fatigues, believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan, had on July 27 last year sprayed a moving bus with bullets and stormed a police station in Dinanagar, Gurdaspur, killing eight people, including a superintendent of police, before being killed in the counter-offensive. The case is being probed by the Punjab police.

Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had refused to hand over the Dinanagar case to the NIA, which is probing the Pathankot attack.

Terrorists had attacked the Pathankot Indian Air Force base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2.

They were killed in a counter-operation by Indian forces that lasted for about three days and also claimed the lives of seven security personnel.

The federal investigative agency may again seek to take over the Dinanagar probe as well since there has not been much headway in the investigation conducted by the Punjab police.

Meanwhile, Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh is reportedly giving conflicting statements about his abduction after which it has been decided that he will be confronted with his cook Madan Gopal and Somraj, the caretaker of the Panj Peer dargah which Salwinder said he had visited on the day of his kidnapping.

The sources said that the confrontation was necessitated after conflicting statements were emerging from all the three and added that a final decision on whether to conduct a polygraph (lie detector) test on Salwinder or the others will be done after Friday’s questioning. While Salwinder has been questioned for the last four days, Gopal and Somraj recorded statements for the first time.