Sukhbir Singh Badal attacked in Nanded: Harsimrat Badal writes to MHA, demands NIA investigation into attack

PTC News Desk: Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking a high-level NIA probe into the August 13, 2026 assassination attempt on her husband, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, at Takht Sri Hazur Sahib, Nanded.

In the letter Harsimrat Kaur Badal said that a conspiracy to assassinate Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal was hatched on August 13, 2026, causing him critical injuries and that the consequences could have been fatal had an alert security personnel not risked his own life to prevent the assailant from carrying out his lethal intent. The security personnel was also injured in the process.

"I write this against the backdrop of the dastardly and heinous assassination bid against my husband and President of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal, on August 13, 2026. I write with a mix of personal pain and profound concern for our society, our state of Punjab and our country, particularly over the manner in which violence is being normalised and even justified by persons holding positions of power in Punjab, apparently as a means of pursuing political battles," she wrote in the letter. 

Read letter here

Notably this is the second assassination attempt carried out targeting Sukhbir Singh Badal. 

"I also wish to emphasise that the second assassination attempt raises serious questions about the manner in which the Punjab Government and the Punjab Police dealt with the first attack," the letter further read. 

Meanwhile, SAD MP also raised questions over the working of Punjab government and police while dealing with the initial attack in 2024 inside Golden Temple complex, Amritsar.  

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"More disturbing are the circumstances surrounding the assailant's interactions with senior police officers before the attack. Senior local police officer Harpal Singh Randhawa, then SP, was seen mixing freely with the assailant and sharing jokes and laughter with him two days before the assassination attempt. These circumstances raise serious questions about whether there was any form of police connivance or prior knowledge," the letter added further. 

My letter to the Hon’ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah seeking an NIA probe into the assassination bid against Shiromani Akali Dal President Sardar Sukhbir Singh Badal.

I highlighted 3 pertinent points in my letter:-

• Both attacks took place at sacred Guru Ghars while a… pic.twitter.com/pc53vyuR2I

— Harsimrat Kaur Badal (@HarsimratBadal_) August 16, 2026

An FIR has been registered under various sections of the law at the concerned police station. A detailed investigation is underway to identify those involved, trace their network and find out about any possible associates.

She also raised questions over unusually cordial relationship between senior Punjab Police officers and the assailant despite credible inputs suggesting alleged extremist antecedents of the assailant, Narain Singh Chaura.  

"The conduct of the then Amritsar Police Commissioner, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, following the December 4 attack was equally alarming. Despite these circumstances, no senior police officer appears to have been questioned or held accountable for the serious lapses surrounding the assassination attempt on a former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and former Union Minister. "

Harsimrat Kaur Badal in her letter to MHA also highlighted obliviousness of the Punjab Police in handling case involving an attempted assassination of a prominent public figure. "The conduct of the Punjab Government and its handling of the subsequent investigation also raises serious questions about the fairness and independence of the process. Instead of unequivocally condemning the attack and pursuing the assailant, senior members of the government have publicly appeared to justify the act as an expression of understandable anger."