In a daring incident in Bijnor, two unidentified motorcycle -borne assailants gunned down an NIA officer and critically wounded his wife in the wee hours of Sunday. The officer, in the rank of the deputy superintendent of Police, along with his wife and children, was returning home from a wedding from Bijnor.
The officer, Mohammed Tanzil Ahmad, who was a member of team probing terror cases related to Indian Mujahideen, sustained as many as 24 bullet wounds while his wife Farzana was shot at four times. Scared by the showering of bullets, their 14-year old daughter and 12-year old son hid themselves under the back seat of their Wagon-R car.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is visiting his parliamentary constituency of lucknow, was apprised of the incident. “Whatever is necessary is being done. We are talking to NIA officials,” Singh said.
In a statement, the hospital where Farzana is admitted, said, “The officer’s wife was brought in a critical condition. Our doctors are providing the best medical treatment to her. Consid-ering patient’s confidentiality, we cannot comment any further.”
According to reports, around 8.00 pm on Saturday, Tanzil along with his family left their home for attending his niece’s marriage function in Sohra village in Bijnor. When they were returning home, the assailants waylaid his car 300 metres away from his house and showered bullets around 12.45am on Sunday.
Terming the incident as a “planned attack”, police officials did not rule out the possibility of terror angle in the shootout. He was attacked from a close range.
The police officials said it seemed that Tanzil Ahmad’s movement was being tracked by assailants who used sophisticated weapons (one 9mm pistol) in the shootout. “Tanzil Ahmad was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne persons on his way to home,” IG (law and Order) of UP Police Bhagwan Swaroop said. In Delhi, NIA IG Sanjeev Kumar mourned the murder of one of the brave officers of the organisation and also termed the attack as a “planned attack”.
“A planned attack was made on Ahmad and he was fired upon several times. Ahmad was killed, while his wife was injured. She has been admitted to Fortis Hospital, Noida.
He was an assistant commandant with BSF and was on deputation with NIA,” he said.
Police sealed borders of district and launched a massive manhunt in search of assailants. Additional Director General of Police Daljit Chowdhry said “nothing can be ruled out,” when asked about the possibility of terror angle behind the attack.
“The body has been sent for post-mortem and details of what actually happened will soon come out. Borders of the State have been sealed and police teams are conducting checking. We are trying to find out the motive behind gruesome killing,” he said.
He added that investigations were on and UP Police, UP ATS, NIA, the DIG of NIA from lucknow and his team were on the spot.
Chowdhry said the Uttar Pradesh Police was also trying to ascertain whether the 9 mm pistol used for the crime was country-made or factory-made.
UP Director General of Police Javed Ahmad said IG Special Task Force (STF) and IG Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) have been dispatched to Bijnor to probe the incident.
“We are also in touch with NIA officers and coordinating with them. We will go deep into it and ensure those involved are arrested”, Ahmad said.
Superintendent of Police, Bijnor, Subhash Singh Baghel said, Tanzil Ahmad visited Bijnor on Friday to attend his niece’s marriage at a guest house in Sohara village, around nine killometres from their residence.
Meanwhile, the slain officer’s body was on Sunday evening brought to Abul Fazal Encalve in Okhla where he has been living for the last fifteen years or so. Thousands of people gathered at Batla House graveyard to pay their last respect to the officer.
Ahmad was posted as an assistant commandant in BSF and was on deputation to NIA. He was posted as Inspector initially with the NIA’s Intelligence wing and later in its investigation department. He was with the NIA ever since the inception of the organisation in February 2009 and had been investigating many cases especially related to operational activity of banned Indian Mujahideen terror outfit. His superiors termed him as a true professional in intelligence gathering as well in carrying out investigation. He was also in the delegation of Indian officers which is coordinating with Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team probing the Pathankot terror attack.