Acting swiftly, NSG men, accompanying Dr. Abdullah, pinned down the man, who is seen in a video of the scene, putting his pistol close to his neck before opening fire.
File Photo
Political stalwart and former chief minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah survived an assassination attempt when a man tried to open fire at him from close range at a marriage function here last evening.
Acting swiftly, NSG men, accompanying Dr. Abdullah, pinned down the man, who is seen in a video of the scene, putting his pistol close to his neck before opening fire. However, the gun shot missed him and the NSG personnel snatched the revolver after overpowering him.
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Dr. Abdullah was attending the marriage ceremony of the kin of a leader of the legal cell of the ruling National Conference. Deputy CM Surinder Chaudhary and CM’s advisor Nasir Aslam were with him at the time of the incident.
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Chaudhary questioned lack of security measures at the marriage venue where Dr. Abdullah was present.
In a press release early this morning, the Jammu Police said, “An attempt was made on the life of Dr. Farooq Abdullah, former CM/President of J&K National Conference, when he was attending a marriage ceremony at Royal Park Greater Kailash, Jammu”.
“The security personnel of JKP and NSG, who were deployed with the protectee, immediately swung into action and thwarted the attempt. Further, the accused was taken into custody, who was later identified as Kamal Singh S/o Ajit Singh R/o Purani Mandi, Jammu. The firearm, used in the crime, has also been recovered from the possession of then accused”, Police said.
“Cognizance has been taken and further investigation is going on”, Police added.
Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on X; “Allah is kind. My father had a very close shave. 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 & 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”.
“Thankfully both the DCM & @nasirsogami who were accompanying my father at the time are also safe and sound. The almighty shielded them”, Omar wrote.
An eyewitness Rakesh Singh said, “I was at the wedding of the daughter of the president of our legal cell. We were all sitting and enjoying ourselves. Then Doctor Sahib said that he has to go. Then a man came and put a revolver behind Doctor Sahib’s back. However, he missed the shot. Doctor Sahib survived. There was no security or police here. The deputy CM was with him, the advisor was with him”.
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