AMRITSAR, India: Indian Sikh leader and former deputy chief minister of Punjab state, Sukhbir Singh Badal survived a shooting attempt outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar city on Wednesday.
Police claimed to have arrested the gunman who tried to shoot the Sikh political leader. Badal remained unharmed in the incident.
The shooter, identified by police as Narain Singh, 68, was seen in TV footage from ANI news agency walking to the entrance of the Golden Temple, the holiest place for Sikhs, and removing a gun from his pocket to fire at the politician.
The policemen in plainclothes stopped and pushed away the shooter, but not before he fired a missed shot.
Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told reporters that the gunman had been arrested. The reason for the attack was not immediately clear.
The shooting comes at a time when Badal, a former ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, was performing a penance ritual outside the Golden Temple.
It is pertinent to mention Sikhism is one of India’s main religions, and Sikhs constitute nearly two percent of India’s 1.4 billion population.
In 1984, then-prime minister Indira Gandhi sent the military into the Golden Temple to kill Sikh separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters.
In October this year, Canada revealed a troubling connection between Indian officials, intelligence agents, and criminal organizations targeting Sikh activists within its borders.
This revelation follows the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh leader and advocate for the Khalistan movement, whose murder in June 2023 has drawn widespread condemnation and highlighted the Modi government’s controversial international tactics.
The Canadian government has alleged that India’s Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Hindu nationalist PM Narendra Modi, was behind the plots to target Sikh leaders on Canadian land.
The United States charged a former Indian government official in October for allegedly orchestrating a foiled murder plot against a Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
