A gunman has tried to assassinate a prominent Indian politician at the Golden Temple in the Indian city of Amritsar,
The assailant fired at Sukhbir Singh Badal, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab, at one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion on Wednesday.
No injuries were reported.
The suspect, later identified as 68-year-old Narain Singh Chaura, was overpowered by bystanders and was handed to police.
The attack happened at one of the holiest Sikh sites. File pic: saiko3p/iStock
Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the gunman was “a former terrorist and a criminal”.
“He has been arrested and the weapon has been recovered,” he said.
The incident was caught on camera by media filming Mr Badal, who was performing his “sewadar” as a religious punishment meted out by the Akal Takht, the highest religious authority of the Sikhs.
He and some of his party leaders were directed to perform guard duty, wash dishes, clean shoes and toilets at the Golden Temple and several other gurdwaras, or temples.
A small board hung around his neck acknowledging the “misdeeds” committed by him and his government while he was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Mr Badal was in a wheelchair with a fractured leg, holding a spear as a guard at the temple gates.
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Mr Bhullar said alert police officers managed to stop the attack.
“Deploying policemen in uniform at the Golden Temple was a challenging task because of religious feelings,” he said.
“There are many restrictions and constraints in checking or frisking people coming to the temple. We did what was possible and the result shows how prepared we were.”
The attacker is believed to be a member of the now-inactive militant group Khalistan Liberation Army.
Leaders of Mr Badal’s party and opposition leaders are demanding a high-level judicial probe into the incident and say the law and order situation of Punjab is deteriorating – a claim denied by the ruling state government.