A gunman shot at a prominent Sikh politician outside the Golden Temple in northern India on Wednesday before police caught and arrested him, in a scare at the popular site that witnessed a bloody clash between Sikh militants and troops four decades ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The politician, Sukhbir Singh Badal, former deputy chief minister of Punjab state, was unharmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shooter, identified by police as Narain Singh, 68, was seen in TV footage from news agency ANI<\/em> walking to the entrance of the temple in Amritsar city, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, and stealthily removing a gun from his pocket to fire at Badal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was stopped and pushed away by a policeman in plainclothes who was standing next to Badal, but not before he fired a stray shot, which did not hit anyone, police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDue to the alertness and deployment of our police, this attack attempt was foiled,\u201d Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told reporters, adding that the gunman had been arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason for the attack was not immediately clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Badal, a former ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party, was sitting outside the Golden Temple doing a penance ritual imposed on him by the Akal Takht, Sikhism\u2019s highest body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sikhism is one of the country\u2019s main religions, and Sikhs form nearly 2 per cent of India\u2019s 1.4 billion population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1984, then-prime minister Indira Gandhi sent the military into the Golden Temple to evict armed Sikh separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his supporters, infuriating Sikhs around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n