'Purani Mandi, purana shehar, purana gaon': Kamal Singh Jamwal, the man who harbored a 20-year grudge to kill Farooq Abdullah

JAMMU/SRINAGAR: The wedding was in full swing in Jammu’s Greater Kailash area, with guests moving between the decorated halls, music playing softly, and conversations filling the air. Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister and National Conference president, walked calmly among the crowd, flanked by his security detail, acknowledging familiar faces with a nod and a smile.Suddenly, from behind the crowd, a man emerged. In a flash, he closed the distance, raised a revolver, and pressed it against Abdullah’s neck. Security personnel reacted instantly, wresting the man to the ground, disarming him, and preventing what could have been a tragedy. A single shot rang out into the air, harmlessly. Farooq Abdullah emerged unharmed. The man who caused the panic was Kamal Singh Jamwal, a 63-year-old resident of Purani Mandi, one of Jammu’s oldest neighbourhoods. Calm and composed even after being overpowered, Jamwal told police that he had been planning to kill Farooq Abdullah for the past 20 years.He explained that he lived off the rental income from a few shops and had no formal employment. Proudly, he referred to his neighbourhood as “the first-ever capital of the region since 1371.” Jamwal admitted that he had used his personal weapon and had carried out the attempt on his own. He gave no detailed political or ideological reasoning, only stating vaguely that he had “his own reasons” for targeting Abdullah.“My name is Kamal Singh Jamwal, son of late Shri Ajit Singh Jamwal from Purani Mandi. I wanted to kill Farooq Abdullah for the past 20 years. Today I got the chance to eliminate him, but he survived. I had my own reasons behind this. I used my personal weapon. I don’t work at all. I have two or three shops from which I collect rent. I live in the Purani Mandi area — Purani Mandi, purana shehar, purana gaon in Jammu. The first-ever capital in 1371,” Kamal Singh told investigators.Eyewitnesses described him as unusually composed, sitting calmly in the police station as he recounted his decades-long desire to carry out the attack.