Sukhbir Singh Badal, a senior leader of the Sikh-centric Shiromani Akali Dal party, was outside the shrine where he was doing volunteer work. This task had been imposed on him by the Takht Akal, the highest temporal authority of the Sikh faith, as a religious punishment.
Badal and other party leaders had been sanctioned by the Takht Akal for
committed during their rule of the state of Punjab between 2007 and 2017. Television footage shows an elderly man approaching Badal and shooting him. The attacker was, however, overpowered and arrested on the spot.
The English-language daily The Indian Express identified the attacker as Narain Singh Chaura, a former militant and member of the now inactive Khalistan Liberation Army group.
The Khalistan movement, launched in the late 1970s by part of the Sikh religious community in India, aimed to establish an independent state in the Punjab region. Although Sikh separatism has lost its intensity in India, pro-Khalistan groups remain active internationally.
