2 attacks on Akali chief Sukhbir Badal and a coincidence

The coincidence is striking for another reason. The first attack on Sukhbir Badal, on December 4, 2024, was carried out by Narain Singh Chaura, a former militant who opened fire at Badal while he was performing religious penance outside the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Badal escaped unhurt after a security officer intervened and diverted the assailant’s aim. Chaura was arrested at the spot.

Chaura’s background provides a significant link to the Hawara episode. He was among those accused by the police of playing a key role in the January 2004 Burail jail escape, in which Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Paramjit Singh Bheora and another undertrial in a separate case, Devi Singh, escaped through a tunnel in a sensational jailbreak.

Investigators had then alleged that Chaura was involved in facilitating the escape and had been in contact with Hawara around the time of the jailbreak. Investigators also found calls exchanged between Chaura and Hawara around the night of the escape.

Chaura was, however, subsequently acquitted in the Burail jailbreak case in 2015 after the prosecution failed to establish the conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt.

He was later arrested following the 2024 attack on Badal but was granted bail by an Amritsar court in March 2025. The court cited, among other considerations, the period he had already spent in custody and the likelihood that the trial would take time to conclude.

Against this backdrop, highly placed sources told The Indian Express that “the second attack on Badal warrants close scrutiny, particularly because it has occurred at a time when the Hawara parole issue has acquired fresh political and administrative momentum”.

Punjab Chief Minister Mann has publicly supported Hawara’s parole. Former Union minister and Beant Singh’s grandson Ravneet Singh Bittu has also pressed for the relief for Hawara so that he could meet his ailing mother. Both Mann and Bittu met the Punjab Governor separately and sought the 10-day parole for Hawara.

Sukhbir Badal, so far, has not spoken specifically in favour of or against the parole to Hawara. However, he and his party had been advocating the release of ‘Bandi Singhs’ – convicted Sikh militants/ prisoners, particularly those convicted or detained in cases arising from the militancy period in Punjab – who include Hawara.

The final decision on Hawara’s parole is yet to be taken by the authorities. He is lodged in Mandoli jail, Delhi.

Sources disclosed that the investigating agencies are probing “whether the Nanded attack was an isolated act motivated by the assailants’ individual grievances or whether there was any organisational or ideological motivation behind it, and whether there is any connection – direct or indirect – with the wider network or individuals historically associated with the Hawara episode”.