Sukhbir Badal seeks President's Police medal for officer who saved his life

Chandigarh  (The Uttam Hindu): Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday recommended a President's Police medal for Punjab Police Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Jasbir Singh for "an act of exceptional and exemplary courage and selfless devotion to duty" at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 2 when an assassination attempt was made on his life. In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Sukhbir Singh Badal said, "It was only because of the blessings and grace of the almighty that ASI Jasbir Singh happened to be present there that day." "It was remarkable how Jasbir Singh displayed a rare courage and commitment to his duty and risked his life to safeguard the sanctity of Sikhism's most sacred shrine, Shri Harmandar Sahib, and to save my life," he added.

He said, "The prevention of the tragic sequence of events was nothing short of providential, especially as those bent upon vitiating the sanctity of the place and the atmosphere of peace and communal harmony in Punjab, seemed to enjoy the brazen patronage of the high and mighty in the state." Joining the issue, SAD Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal also wrote to Amit Shah, demanding a high-level judicial probe into the incident. In addition to recommending that Jasbir Singh's act of bravery on duty be acknowledged at the national level through an award of the President's Medal, she slammed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his government in Punjab for "issuing provocative justifications for acts amounting to killings of political rivals". She said that minutes before the assassination attempt on Sukhbir Singh Badal's life, senior officers of the police were busy chatting about controversial figures who have a criminal track record. She said in a statement that the assassination attempt was neither a stray incident nor was it an individual act by "a lone wolf". It was a clearly sponsored, pre-planned, pre-meditated act and a part of a deep-rooted conspiracy to weaken and eliminate the Sikh leadership, she added.