New Delhi: An ex-militant, who held both a personal and ideological grudge against the Badal family that ruled Punjab for nearly two decades, seized a window of “opportunity”. This is how senior Punjab Police officers have summed up the attempt on former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s life at the Golden Temple Wednesday.
Although police officers are tight-lipped about the granular details of the incident, such as where Narain Singh Chaura got the 9mm pistol he allegedly used to target Badal, they describe the attempt on his life as a “new chapter” in the decades-long history of the battle between “moderates and radicals” in the Sikh community.
They say Chaura used the fact that people can’t be frisked at the Golden Temple’s entrance, to get close to his target. Badal was serving as a guard outside the temple as part of a punishment meted out to him by the Akal Takht, the highest Sikh decision-making body.
Badal and some senior SAD leaders were declared ‘tankhaiya’ (a sinner, guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for the violations of religious rules under the SAD government. They were asked to perform sewa (service), including tasks such as standing guard and cleaning utensils as well as toilets, to seek forgiveness.
The 68-year-old Chaura from Dera Baba Nanak—who is charged in 21 cases, including of terrorism—approached Badal, who is wheelchair-bound because of a fracture, Wednesday morning and allegedly attempted to open fire before he was overpowered by policemen in plain clothes.
Addressing a press conference in Amritsar Thursday, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that investigators are moving an application to formally take Chaura into police custody to continue a “thorough investigation”. Later, a local court in Amritsar sent Chaura to police custody for three days.
“A 9 mm pistol has been recovered from him and we are establishing backward linkages to investigate the source of the weapon. We are keeping all agencies involved to keep our agency transparent,” Bhullar said.
“He has been a member of several political organisations, such as Hawara Committee, and we are also investigating if his radical background played a role in this incident.”
‘Deep grudges against Badals’
Senior Punjab Police officers aware of the developments in the case told ThePrint that Chaura held “deep grudges” against the Badal family for more than two decades due to the moderate stance taken by Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal’s father, in promoting unity between Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab which did not sit well with radicals such as Chaura and other militant-like individuals.
“Chaura, a hardliner, already had many reasons to hate the Badal family and it only multiplied after his arrest and five-long years in jail after being arrested in 2013,” a Punjab Police officer told ThePrint.
ThePrint had earlier reported that Chaura was a member of the terrorist outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) during the height of the militancy in the state. He has 21 cases against him, a majority of which are under stringent laws, such as Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Arms Act.
Hailing from Chaura Bajwa village in Dera Baba Nanak town of Gurdaspur district, Chaura also served as a pracharak (preacher) in the Punjab unit of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in the past. The SGPC is a statutory body which controls and manages Sikh gurdwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.
Another senior officer told ThePrint, “It’s an undisputed fact that the hardliners who wanted control over the SGPC and Akalis never got along because of their contradictory stances on politics and society.”
“Hardliners from the community, some of them, supported by Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) never supported unity between Sikhs and Hindus that Parkash Singh Badal preached and propagated and Chaura is from the same school of thought,” he added.
‘Saw an opportunity during visit’
Another police officer aware of the case details said that while Chaura took a round of the Golden Temple complex Tuesday, a day before the attack, he saw an “opportunity” after assessing the security apparatus around Badal because frisking and thorough checking of each individual are not allowed in the gurdwara complex.
“The security apparatus was heightened but there are few things such as where Badal was to be posted as punishment by Akal Takht was beyond the scope of Punjab Police. While he was stationed outside the entry gate as a guard, Chaura sensed an opportunity to eliminate a man he despised for decades,” another officer said.
“He had a gun with him which he carried only on the day of the attack after carefully understanding the possible opportunity to go closer to Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was posted outside the entry gate,” he further explained.
Responding to SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia’s questions on why Chaura, whose criminal history was known to police, was not taken into custody considering the threat to Badal, one of the officers quoted above said that no law allows the police to arrest someone purely because he had been arrested previously.
“On what basis could he have been arrested by the police? There are several people who are ex-militants who come to pay obeisance at the Harmandir Sahib. How many of them can be taken into custody? It’s for that reason we heightened security and alerted personnel in charge of Badal’s security to be ready for any emergency situation,” the police officer added.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)