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Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal injured in shoe attack at Lambi


Mangalore Today News Network

Bathinda, Jan 11 2017: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, 89, was injured in the eye when a protester hurled a shoe at him during an election campaign at Ratta Khera village in his Lambi assembly constituency of Muktsar district on Wednesday afternoon.


CM Parkash Sin...Eyewitnesses said Badal’s eye bled as his spectacles broke with the impact of the hit. They said he was immediately escorted out of the venue.

The shoe-thrower was identified as Gurbachan Singh.

“A man identified as Gurbachan Singh, a relative of a Sikh radical leader, hurled a shoe at Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal,” PTI said quoting Muktsar senior superintendent of police Dhruman H Nimbale.

Punjab goes to the polls on February 4 and Badal’s Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP combine is up against the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. But memory of a series of incidents involving the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib last year, and alleged government inactivity over the case, has angered many locals.

The SSP said the incident occurred at village Ratta Khera where Badal was busy in a public meeting during his election campaign.

“The CM was just getting up after completing his address when a shoe was hurled,” he said.

Gurbachan is brother of radical Sikh leader Amrik Singh Ajnala. “He appeared to be upset over the sacrilege incidents which took place in Punjab,” the SSP said, adding that he had been nabbed.

A few days ago, a group of people threw stones at the cavalcade of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal at Kandhwala Hazir Khan village in his constituency, Jalalabad in Fazilka district, leaving four Akali supporters injured