‘Hardliner with old grudge against Badals’ moderate stance’—how senior Punjab cops see Sukbhir’s attacker
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 serv...