An official with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was shot dead by unknown people in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh early on Sunday.
Deputy Superintendent of police Mohammad Tanzil and his family were heading back to their house in Sahaspur town around 1 am when two motorcycle-borne men forced him to stop his WagonR car at Seohara and fired from a close range. Tanzil, on deputation from the Border Security Force, had gone to Bijnor city with his family to attend a marriage function.
Sources said that he was reportedly shot 21 times, and his wife has sustained four bullets. She was rushed to hospital. The children were unhurt.
NIA said that attack on its officer was a planned attack. “When he was coming back from a function, a planned attack took place on him. UP Police, STF and ATS are investigating the matter,” said NIA IG Sanjiv Kumar Singh.
Singh said that though Tanzil was not formally a part of the Pathankot airbase attack probe team, he was consulted owing to his knowledge of Urdu. NIA and ATS teams have visited the Moradabad hospital where the officer’s body is being kept.
Asked about a possible terror link to the shooting, Daljit Chowdhry, an Additional Director General of the UP Police said, “Nothing can be ruled out. A very serious offence has taken place in the district and we have taken it very seriously. The body has been sent for postmortem and details of what actually happened will soon come out.”
The attack comes days after the Pakistan Joint Investigation Team looking into the 2 January attack on Pathankot airforce base completed the five-day long India leg of its investigation and returned home.
The children aged 10 and 8 years were unhurt. The criminal is reportedly to have used prohibitory 9mm pistol to kill the officer. While Tanzil was pronounced dead on arrival at a medical facility in Moradabad, his wife Farzana is critical and battling for her life in a hospital in New Delhi. The deceased was recruited in the BSF and later went to the NIA on deputation.
