Murder Of NIA Officer, 2 including sharp shooter detained

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Apr 07, 2016:Two men, including one described by the police as a sharpshooter, have been detained in connection with the murder of National Investigation Agency officer Mohammed Tanzil Ahmed in Uttar Pradesh last week.

The police said the motorbike that the attackers used to chase down and intercept the officer’s car has also been found. The men detained are being questioned by investigators.

Mr Tanzil was driving back from a family wedding in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor back home to Delhi when his car was stopped by two men and he was shot 16 times. In the car with him were his wife, who is in hospital with bullet wounds, and two children aged 14 and 11, who were told by their father to duck as the first shots were fired.

Mr Tanzil, 45, was investigating a host of terror cases including some against suspected ISIS sympathisers, and a joint team of security agencies has been investigating whether his murder was linked to his work.

On Wednesday, however, the Uttar Pradesh police said "a personal matter" like a dispute over property may have been the reason behind the officer’s killing. "There are certain things which are pointing towards a personal matter," Daljeet Singh Chaudhary, Additional Director General (Law and Order) in Uttar Pradesh said.

Police sources said they believe the conspiracy to kill the officer was hatched in his Sahaspur village in Bijnor where he attended his niece’s wedding hours before he was shot dead.

On video footage from the wedding, two strangers were spotted who no one could identify, but the police later said they were not suspects in the murder.

The NIA, Uttar Pradesh Police and other security agencies are together investigating the case, but Mr Ahmed’s family has requested a CBI inquiry, saying it is not happy with progress in the case.