Narain Singh Chaura

Narain Singh Chaura, from Chaura village in Gurdaspur district, is a pro-Khalistan activist whom police have linked to the Akal Federation, the Khalistan Liberation Force and the Babbar Khalsa. He is best known as the man accused of firing at Sukhbir Singh Badal outside Sri Harmandir Sahib on 4 December 2024. He is a living person; at the latest report we found (March 2025) he was out on bail and the case was pending. What follows keeps apart what police allege, what a court has done, and what Panthic voices have said.

The record before 2024, as police and the press give it

• Police say he crossed into Pakistan in 1984, helped smuggle weapons and explosives into Punjab in the early phase of what the press calls "militancy", and wrote a book on guerrilla warfare there.
• Police believe he masterminded the 2004 escape from Burail jail, through a tunnel, of four prisoners including Jagtar Singh Hawara.
• He was arrested on 28 February 2013 at Jalalabad village in Tarn Taran district. The Tribune says he was booked in around 30 cases and was wanted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in three districts; he was granted bail in 2018.

4 December 2024

At about 9:30 am Sukhbir Badal, serving a religious punishment (tankhah) as a sewadar at the entrance, was seated in a wheelchair when Chaura, a few metres away, drew a pistol, the Tribune reports. Plainclothes security personnel overpowered him. Badal was unhurt; the same report says both that the bullet hit a wall and that the shot was fired into the air. Police charged him with attempt to murder and offences under the Arms Act. The charge sheet of 31 January 2025 says he used a 9mm pistol, and police say he was angered by what he saw as inaction in sacrilege cases under the then Akali-BJP government. A second man, Dharam Singh, named by police as an alleged co-conspirator, had not been arrested when the Tribune reported. In March 2025 (reported on 26 March) an Amritsar additional sessions judge granted Chaura bail, noting he had been in custody since 4 December 2024 and that the trial would take considerable time.

How the Panth answered

• At a Dal Khalsa convention at Moga, reported on 6 December 2024, Kanwar Pal Singh called him "true Panthic" and urged the Jathedar to inquire rather than seek a judicial inquiry, and Paramjit Singh Mand said a youth Akali leader who removed Chaura's turban should apologise, or the Akal Takht should act.
• On 9 December 2024 the SGPC executive under president Harjinder Singh Dhami submitted a representation to Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh seeking his expulsion from the Panth.

Remembered for: for now, one act and the argument over it, a dispute between the SGPC and a section of the Panthic parties over whether he should be treated as an offender against the Panth or as one of its own. A court will decide the charge.