SRINAGAR/JAMMU: The suspect arrested for attempting to shoot National Conference president Farooq Abdullah at a wedding in Jammu Wednesday is a 63-year-old man who, by his own admission in a video recorded after he was overpowered and disarmed, had been planning for 20 years to assassinate the ex-J&K CM.”I wanted to kill Farooq Abdullah…It was my personal agenda. I tried today but it didn’t happen. The weapon I used is a licensed one in my name,” Kamal Singh Jamwal, a resident of Purani Mandi in the old city, says in the video circulating on social media.The arrested man, a resident of Jammu’s Purani Mandi neighbourhood, tells the person quizzing him that he was at the venue as a relative of the groom.Police officially haven’t revealed anything about Jamwal beyond Jammu SP (city south) Ajay Sharma posting on X that “there is no terror angle”.
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Authorities have sealed Jamwal’s home and deployed a guard outside.Farooq told reporters that Union home minister Amit Shah called late Wednesday to assure him that the security scare would be thoroughly investigated.”I told him (Shah) that we should be able to get to the bottom of it,” Farooq said. “The Centre and the lieutenant governor of J&K repeatedly say law-and-order has improved. They should seriously reflect on whether it has improved to such an extent that we can walk with dignity.” The firing happened moments before the NC chief was to leave the Greater Kailash venue. “I initially thought it was a firecracker. Then I felt heat here,” Farooq said, pointing to the side of his left ear.He was quickly escorted to his vehicle, where his security detail told him that the suspect had fired two shots before a security guard grabbed his arm, immobilised him and snatched the gun.Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary, who was with Farooq, blamed “a security lapse” for the alleged assassination attempt, saying he was shocked by the absence of police at an event he and the president of the governing party were attending.”You can understand the situation – the assailant was taken to the police station by my security detail,” Choudhary said.On Jamwal’s claim that he had long wanted to target him, Farooq said, “I have not done anything wrong to anyone. Even when I was CM, whoever came to me, I always tried to help them.”NC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar insisted the firing should be investigated as “a terror incident”, questioning how a video of Jamwal “justifying his act” appeared on social media. “Why was the video leaked and at whose behest?” Dar said, adding that Farooq had previously been targeted by terrorists three times.At NC’s Srinagar headquarters, party functionaries adopted a resolution condemning the attack as “an “assault on democratic values and the voice of the people”. Ex-CM Mehbooba Mufti and Kashmir’s head cleric and Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq issued similar statements.CM Omar Abdullah visited his father at his Jammu residence early Thursday before heading to the civil secretariat for a series of meetings.
