The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today termed the murderous attack on S Sukhbir Singh Badal as an attack on Sri Darbar Sahib even as he accused the Congress party and its senior leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa of patronizing the perpetrator – Babbar Khalsa International militant Narayan Singh Chaura and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of allowing the attack to take place.
Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the murderous attack was aimed at finishing the moderate Akali leadership of Punjab and spoiling the peace in the border State by creating a communal divide. “We demand a high court monitored probe into the entire incident to unmask the entire conspiracy behind it”.
Asserting that the “aapar bakshish of Guru Ramdas had saved S Sukhbir Singh Badal and allowed him to complete his ‘sewa’ even while he was being fired upon; Mr Majithia said “the ‘sewa’ as mandated by Sri Akal Takht Sahib will continue unabated. We will not be cowed down by such cowardly attacks”.
Taking on chief minister Bhagwant Man of lying and taking fake credit for nabbing the accused, Mr Majithia displayed video evidence to show the State police was nowhere near the scene of the crime and the militant was allowed to approach the Akali leader despite Punjab Police claims that attacker was under surveillance.
“This indicates that this was part of a preplanned attack and that the attacker was a sponsored hit man of ISI and agencies besides being a close associate of Sukhijinder Singh Randhawa”. He also thanked S Sukhbir Singh Badal’s personal security personnel Jasbir Singh for thwarting the attack, saying “Jasbir has been part of Sukhbir ji’s security detail since the last twenty years and is a part of the Badal family”.
Giving details of the attacker Narayan Singh Chaura, the SAD leader said “Chaura is a dreaded militant from whom bombs, a MP-5 machine gun and an AK-47 have been recovered”. Asserting that Narayan was the brother of Narinder Singh Chaura, Mr Majithia said “Congress leader Sukhjinder Randhawa got Narinder elected to the Panchayat Samiti unanimously”.
He also asserted that two cases against Narayan Chaura were cancelled when the Congress party was in power and that he was also freed in 2018 when Randhawa was a minister in the Congress government. He also gave instances how Randhawa had promoted associates of Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) earlier.
Stating that Bhagwant Mann had completely failed as home minister, Mr Majithia said “the State DGP and the Amritsar Police have a lot to answer for”. He said the police should explain how a dreaded militant was allowed to roam in the Sri Darbar Sahib complex for two days and why he was not nabbed earlier. “The Punjab Police should also tell why it compromised the safety of S Sukhbir S Badal by allowing the attacker to approach him and fire at point blank range”.
He said earlier also the Punjab Police had been found wanting in the case of murder of Sidhu Moosewala as well as attacks on its Intelligence headquarter and even cover up of the media interview gangster Lawrence Bishnoi gave while in police custody . “Now a situation has arisen where a ‘Guru ka Sikh’ who has been mandated to do ‘sewa’ by Sri Akal Takht is being prevented from doing this. How safe can Punjabis be?”
Mr Majithia also made it clear that the perpetrator of the crime could not be called a Sikh as he had committed the crime of attacking Sri Harmandar Sahib. “Allowing such persons to raise their head again will have very dangerous repercussions for our border State”, he added.