Lambi, Muktsar: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,89, was attacked by a shoe while addressing a rally at a village in Lambi in Muktsar district on Wednesday afternoon. Eyewitnesses said Badal’s eye bled as his spectacles broke due to the hit.
Police said the man who threw the shoe identified as Gurbachan Singh and he is the brother of Sarbat Khalsa appointed Jathedar of Takhat Keshgarh Sahib Amrik Singh Ajnala.
According to the sources the 40-year-old Gurbachan was angry with the SAD-BJP government’s failure in arresting the persons responsible for the acts of sacrilege early October in 2015 and no policeman were identified for the killing of two persons at village Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015, when they were protesting against desecration of Bir of Guru Granth Sahib.
The shoe first hit security personnel and then touched Mr. Badal’s turban when he was addressing the people with an appeal to ensure SAD-BJP forms the government in Punjab for the third straight term.
The Senior Superintendent of Police said.”Gurbachan appeared to be upset over the sacrilege incidents which took place in Punjab,” he added that he had been arrested. A case will be registered against the accused, he said.
Later Badal said in a statement that.” The incident proved “beyond doubt” that Akali Dal’s political rivals had “lost the game” and wanted to “scuttle a peaceful, free and fair poll.”
He further added, “as a father figure in the state,” he would “continue to walk the path of patience, peace, and communal harmony”. “Behind such incidents are people who want to set Punjab on flames again and push the youth of Punjab back into the jaws of bloodshed and confrontation from which the people of the state have emerged after unspeakable sacrifices,” Badal said. These desperate elements, he said, have the backing of “our political rivals”.
On Sunday evening stones pelted at the cavalcade of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal at village Kandhwala Hazar Khan in Jalalabad.