The gunman, who was caught on camera trying to shoot Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday, has told the police that he had been planning to kill the 88-year-old National Conference (NC) chief for the past two decades.
Police have ruled out a terror angle in the incident and said the shooter appeared to be drunk at the time of the incident during a wedding in Jammu.
Farooq Abdullah and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary had a narrow escape from the attack by the gunman. The incident occurred when Abdullah, along with the deputy chief minister and the chief minister’s advisor, Nasir Aslam Wani, were leaving the venue in the posh Greater Kailash area on the outskirts of the city, the officials said.
The accused, identified as Kamal Singh Jamwal, a resident of Purani Mandi, was overpowered by two officers of the security wing of J&K Police – an inspector and a sub-inspector – when he approached Abdullah from behind with a pistol and opened fire at him.
“I wanted to kill Farooq Abdullah for the past 20 years. It was my personal agenda. The weapon is my own, issued to me,” Jamwal told police during interrogation, adding that he was “lucky to survive,” according to a report in India Today and News18.
Jamwal owns a few shops in the old part of Jammu. He told investigators that he survives on rent from his shops. “Today, I got the opportunity, but he (Farooq Abdullah) was lucky to survive,” he told the police, the India Today report says.
Jamwal, who is believed to be in his 70s, was found in an inebriated condition and managed to fire one shot before he was disarmed and grounded by the alert personnel, the officials said, adding no one was injured in the firing.
Expressing anguish over the attack, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Farooq Abdullah’s son, Omar Abdullah, said, “Allah is kind. My father had a very close shave.”
In a post on X, he said the details are sketchy at the moment but what is known is that a man with a loaded pistol was able to get “within point-blank range” and discharge a shot.
“It was only the close protection team that deflected the shot & ensured that the assassination attempt failed. There are more questions than answers at the moment including but not limited to how someone was able to get this close to a Z NSG protected former CM,” the chief minister said.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra has strongly condemned the assassination attempt on Farooq Abdullah at a private event here while raising concerns about the security scenario in the region.
In a post on X, he said such acts of violence were deeply disturbing.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chief priest of Kashmir, on Thursday condemned the attack on former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, saying the incident needs to be probed thoroughly.
“News about the attempt on Dr Farooq Abdullah Sahib’s life at a function in Jammu is concerning and condemnable,” Mirwaiz posted on his X handle. The religious leaders called for a probe into how the assailant got so close to Abdullah with a loaded weapon.