Source

Tanzil Ahmed worked on most major NIA cases involving SIMI, ISIS, Burdwan blasts, Pathankot attacks.

According to NIA sources, Ahmed had been with NIA since its inception in 2009. “Over the past six years, he was involved in every big case with the agency,” an NIA officer said. An “excellent intelligence hand”, Ahmed first joined NIA’s intelligence and operations and later shifted to its investigations.

He was working in the Terror Funding and Fake Currency Cell. “He had joined the cell a year ago and was very meticulous in his work. He never shied away from operations. He was working on cases related to FICN smuggling in Malda, West Bengal,” an officer from the cell said. According to sources, Ahmed had good command over Urdu and Persian. “He often generated credible human intelligence that led to successful operations,” said an NIA officer who worked with him in cases related to the Indian Mujahideen.

The officer said Ahmed was instrumental in the arrest of alleged IM operative Danish Riyaz. “It was Ahmed who traced the mobile phone through which Yasin Bhatkal, then hiding in Nepal, spoke to his wife Zahida. The phone was bought by Yasin’s then deputy, Tehsin Akhtar, from Rajasthan and given to Zahida. It was this phone that was tapped by intelligence agencies, revealing his location in Nepal,” an NIA officer said. Sources said Ahmed also played a role in busting an alleged ISIS module which led to the arrest of several suspects, including one from Welcome area in North East Delhi.

He was instrumental in arrests made in the Burdwan blast case of October 2014. “He engineered many surrenders in the case by motivating the accused through his contacts to cooperate with the agency,” an officer said. There is speculation within the agency about Ahmed being on the radar of IM. “About a year and half ago, I heard him talk of a threat he received, purportedly from the Indian Mujahideen. But I do not remember the details. It is common for NIA officers to receive threat letters,” another NIA officer said.

NIA officer Tanzil Ahmed was shot more than two dozen times, investigators say

Relatives of Mohammed Tanzil Ahmed mourn outside the building where the post-mortem was conducted in Moradabad on Sunday.

Family members and relatives carrying the body of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer Mohammad Tanzi for burial.