Harsimrat Badal urges Shah for NIA probe into attacks on Sukhbir Badal

SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the August 13 attack on party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and an assassination attempt on him at the Golden Temple in December 2024. Harsimrat Kaur, who is wife of Sukhbir Badal, described the August 13 incident in Maharashtra’s Nanded as a “dastardly and heinous assassination bid”.

The two assassination attempts had “several disturbing parallels” and raised serious questions about whether they were connected and whether there was a “larger conspiracy” behind them, the former Union minister said in her letter to Shah.

“I write with a mix of personal pain and profound concern for our society, our state of Punjab and our country, particularly over the manner in which violence is being normalised and even justified by persons holding positions of power in Punjab, apparently as a means of pursuing political battles,” she wrote.

Sukhbir Badal sustained injuries to his right hand in a ‘kirpan’ (ceremonial dagger) attack by a member of the Nihang order inside a gurdwara on the outskirts of Maharashtra’s Nanded town on Thursday. The attacker was later arrested.

Referring to the attack, Harsimrat Kaur said Sukhbir Badal, accompanied by her and their children, was coming out after paying obeisance at the Guru Ghar when an assailant attacked him with a sword.

The consequences could have been “fatal” had alert security personnel not intervened and risked his own life to prevent the attack, she said.

Harsimrat Kaur said she and her children did not know whether they too could have become targets had the assailant succeeded in his alleged attempt.

The August 13 incident was not isolated, she said, recalling the December 4, 2024 attack on Sukhbir Badal at Sri Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar when he was performing religious service as directed by the Akal Takht.

Both incidents occurred at sacred Sikh shrines when Sukhbir Badal was engaged in religious service, Harsimrat Kaur said, alleging that the attacks were aimed at eliminating a “moderate voice of Punjab” and a proponent of peace and communal harmony. She also raised questions over the Punjab Government’s handling of the December 2024 attack.

Referring to the December 4, 2024 incident, she said the criminal and alleged extremist antecedents of the assailant, Narain Singh Chaura, were known to the Punjab Police.

“He has been described as a listed extremist, a self-proclaimed terrorist and an alleged ISI operative. Inputs available to the authorities had also indicated that he had issued threats to eliminate Sukhbir Badal,” she said.

Despite this, he was allegedly allowed to move freely within the premises and gain direct and unhindered access to an “unprotected” Sukhbir Badal. This raises serious questions about the security arrangements and the conduct of senior police officials present at the site, she said.

In December 2024, former terrorist Chaura opened fire at Sukhbir Badal from close range outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar but missed his target. He was overpowered by a plainclothes policeman.

No senior police officer appears to have been questioned or held accountable for the serious lapses surrounding the assassination attempt on Sukhbir Badal, she said about the December 2024 attack.

“This has naturally fuelled concerns about possible police and assailant complicity and the larger conspiracy, if any, behind the attempt on Mr Badal’s life,” she wrote.

She alleged that the 2024 attack was sought to be portrayed as a “mere scuffle” and expressed concern over the handling of the investigation.

The former Union minister also alleged that instead of unequivocally condemning the attack, some members of the Punjab Government appeared to justify it as an expression of understandable anger, which, she said, could contribute to the normalisation of political violence.

“I do not regard these incidents as an issue concerning Sukhbir Badal alone. They concern every devout Sikh. They concern the sanctity of our ‘Guru Ghars’ and the manner in which we, as a community, are expected to follow the teachings of our great Guru Sahiban by resolving differences through peaceful and dignified means,” she wrote.

Punjab is a border state and has historically remained sensitive from the perspective of national security, she said.

“Any conspiracy involving extremist elements, inter-state networks or foreign backed organisations therefore cannot be treated merely as a matter of local law and order. The two attacks on Badal also have potential inter-state ramifications and must be investigated from the wider perspective of national security,” she noted.

Harsimrat Kaur claimed that there is a deep public concern in Punjab about the credibility and impartiality of the “politicised police establishment in the state”.

“The circumstances surrounding these two attacks, including the conduct of certain police officials and the subsequent handling of the cases, make it imperative that the entire sequence of events be examined by an agency independent of the Punjab Government,” she stressed.

She said only an independent central investigation can establish the full chain of events, identify the individuals and organisations involved, determine whether the two attacks are connected, examine any possible extremist or foreign links, and establish whether there was any failure, complicity or deliberate dereliction of duty by public officials.

“I respectfully request you to order a high-level investigation by the National Investigation Agency into the assassination attempt of August 13, 2026, and the earlier attempt of December 4, 2024, and to examine whether the two incidents are connected and whether there is a larger conspiracy behind them,” she said in the letter to Shah.