A suspected gunman was arrested after an apparent assassination attempt on senior Kashmiri politician Farooq Abdullah during a wedding ceremony in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), according to Indian media reports on Thursday.

Abdullah, a former chief minister of India-occupied Kashmir, was attending the event in the Greater Kailash area when the attacker allegedly approached him with a pistol. 

Security personnel guarding the veteran leader quickly intervened and overpowered the suspect before he could cause harm.

According to The Hindu, initial reports suggested the attacker brandished a firearm and tried to move towards Abdullah, who is the president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) and the father of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

“Eyewitnesses said he opened fire. However, the police have not confirmed it,” the newspaper reported.

Police confirmed that an attempt had been made on Abdullah’s life during the event.

“The police, in a statement carried by The Hindu, said there was ‘an attempt made on the life of Dr Farooq Abdullah when he was attending a marriage ceremony at Royal Park, Greater Kailash’. “The security personnel of J&K Police and NSG (National Security Guard), who were deployed with the protectee, immediately swung into action and thwarted the attempt,” the statement added.

Occupied Kashmir’s Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary and adviser to the chief minister Nasir Aslam Wani were also present at the gathering when the incident occurred.
In a social media post late on Wednesday, Omar Abdullah said the incident was a close call for his father.

“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,” he added.

Omar questioned how “someone was able to get this close to a Z+ NSG-protected former CM”.

He also shared a video showing Abdullah walking inside a hall when a man approached from behind, apparently pulling a gun from his pocket and pointing it towards the politician before guards tackled him.

Police identified the suspect as Kamal Singh Jamwal, a resident of Purani Mandi in Jammu.

“The firearm, used in the crime, has also been recovered from the possession of the accused,” the police statement said.

According to Hindustan Times, quoting officials, the attacker was a 63-year-old man who told investigators he had been planning to kill Abdullah for nearly two decades.

“I wanted to kill Farooq Abdullah for the past 20 years. It was my personal agenda. The weapon is my own, issued to me,” officials quoted Jamwal as saying, adding that he considered himself “lucky to survive”.

Police said further investigation into the incident was under way.

Reacting to the development, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed concern over the security lapse.

“Shocked to hear about the grave attack on Dr Farooq Abdullah sahab. Relieved to know that he’s safe and doing well. “Hope police gets to the bottom of this very perturbing security lapse,” she said on X.