A man was arrested after he opened fire at a wedding function in Jammu on Wednesday, targeting former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, ANI reported.
Farooq Abdullah was unharmed in the incident, which took place in the Greater Kailash area when he and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary were leaving the event, the Hindustan Times reported.
The person arrested has been identified as 63-year-old Kamal Singh Jamwal, ANI quoted the Jammu and Kashmir Police as saying.
“The security personnel of J&K Police and [National Security Guard], who were deployed with the protectee, immediately swung into action and thwarted the attempt,” the police said, adding that the firearm was recovered from the accused.
Jamwal told the police that he had been planning to kill the National Conference chief for the past 20 years, India Today reported.
“Today, I got the opportunity [to kill Farooq Abdullah],” India Today quoted him as saying. “But he was lucky to survive.”
Police have ruled out a terror angle and said the shooter appeared to be drunk at the time of the incident, the news outlet reported.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that it was the National Conference president’s “close protection team that deflected the shot and ensured that the assassination attempt failed”.
“My father had a very close shave,” Omar Abdullah said in a social media post. “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.”
Describing the incident as a major security lapse, Choudhary said that the police should explain how it happened, The Hindu reported.
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