Spotlight on rising Khalistani sentiment

In a chilling incident that has shaken the entire Punjab and the worldwide Sikh community, Sukhbir Singh Badal, former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and current president Shiromani Akali Dal, was attacked with an assassination plot at the revered Golden Temple in Amritsar.

- TARUNI GANDHI

The attack happened when Badal was performing sewa, or voluntary service, at the Sikh shrine, an act mandated by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, as part of his penance for the sacrilege incidents that unfolded during his political tenure. Narayan Singh Chaura, an individual with deep roots in the Khalistani movement and an infamous militant past, was promptly arrested after he opened fire at Badal. Chaura, born in the village of Chaura near Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur, and educated at the Sikh Missionary College in Amritsar, has a notorious history. He crossed into Pakistan during the high tide of militancy i