NEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal party senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Thursday (Aug 13) called for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the attack on its president Sukhbir Singh Badal inside the Nanded Gurudwara in Maharashtra.
Security concerns have escalated sharply across party ranks after Badal was targeted inside a prominent Sikh shrine for the second time in less than a year.
“Any assault inside a revered place of worship is deeply alarming,” Majithia said in Chandigarh, pointing to what he described as systemic security failures surrounding the Z-plus security protectee.
The latest incident follows a December 2024 shooting at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, where Narayan Singh Chaura opened fire at Badal. Chaura, who had alleged links to Pakistan’s ISI, was seen on security camera footage talking to Amritsar SP Harpal Randhawa moments before that shooting took place.
Majithia said those CCTV records raised critical questions about official oversight that remain unanswered today.
Police identified the Nanded attacker as Jaspal Singh, a resident of Pune. Investigators are looking into his background, though Akali leaders insist local agencies cannot be trusted alone to uncover potential links between the two incidents.
A central agency needs to step in to establish whether a wider conspiracy connects the events in Amritsar and Nanded, Majithia argued, calling for a comprehensive review of state and federal security lapses.
Senior party leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundar and Daljit Singh Cheema backed the demand for federal intervention, insisting only a court-monitored high-level inquiry could establish how an assailant bypassed elite security cover at a high-density religious site.
Political friction over the incident intensified rapidly across Punjab, with Cheema accusing rival political figures of turning a grave security breach into public provocation.
Cheema specifically pointed to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Aam Aadmi Party media in-charge Baltej Singh Pannu. He maintained that both figures were issuing statements designed to incite public sentiment and push the state back toward the dark days of militancy.
Akali spokesperson Arshdeep Singh also targeted AAP spokesperson Kultar Singh Sandhwan, accusing ruling party representatives of accommodating radical agendas for short-term political leverage.
Badal, who leads Punjab’s primary regional opposition party, has faced heightened threat perception amid volatile panthic politics across the state and broader diaspora channels. The Nanded attack has raised security concerns to a higher level and the party leadership has demanded immediate intervention of the central government in his security cover. - The Statesman/ANN
