Muslim inspector probing Pathankot attack shot dead

Mohammad Tanzil shot 21 times; wife in critical  condition while children safe; killing further deepens Pak doubts about veracity of Pathankot attack

ISLAMABAD: Gunmen shot dead a Muslim inspector of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) involved in investigating the Pathankot terrorist attack, the Indian media reported on Sunday.

Inspector Mohammad Tanzil Ahmed was returning from a wedding along with his wife and children when unidentified attackers opened fire on the family near Sahaspur town in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.

The gunmen followed the family and reportedly shot the Muslim NIA inspector 21 times, killing him on the spot.  Tanzil’s wife, who also sustained bullet wounds and was rushed to the hospital, is said to be in critical condition. The children were unhurt.

The killing of the officer has further deepened Pakistan’s doubts about the veracity of the Pathankot attack. While serious flaws in the Indian tale of the Pathankot attack are believed to have already surfaced during the Pakistani JIT’s recent visit despite restricted access given by India, the killing of NIA officer Mohammad Tanzil Ahmed has added to the complications for New Delhi.

Interestingly, it was the Indian media which reported the fact and told the whole world that the NIA officer, involved in the investigation of the terrorist attack on the Indian Airbase in Pathankot, was shot dead in Uttar Prardesh province. But within hours, the Indian security agencies came into play as they tried to twist the facts of its own media by making the IG of the NIA announce that Mohammad Tanzil has been part of several investigations of the NIA but was not a member of the team investigating the Pathankot attack.

According to an Indian media report, the Agency’s IG refuted the media claims that the officer was part of the ongoing Pathankot terror attack investigation.  “When he was coming back from a function, a planned attack took place on him. UP Police, STF and ATS are investigating the matter,” NIA IG Sanjiv Kumar Singh was reported as saying.

According to CNN-IBN, Tanzil Ahmed was part of a team investigating the Indian Airbase terror attack in Pathankot. He was involved in some of the major operations of NIA, said the reports.

Pakistani security agency sources believed that India appears to have started to eliminate those “doubtful” Indians who actually came to know during the course of investigations of the drama of the ‘False Flag Operation’ at Pathankot.

Questions are being raised as to why the wife of the NIA officer has also been hit. Was it the result of possible fears that the officer might have divulged anything to his wife? Can the state be so callous that it starts killing its own citizen and a serving officer whose only crime was that he was a Muslim who had come to know the dark secrets of Indian statecraft?