Police have arrested a person after he tried to shoot Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday.

People overpowered the person and handed him over to the police.

Sukhbir Badal, who was serving as a guard outside the temple entrance as part of a religious punishment, is safe, sources told India Today.

The arrested person was identified as Narain Singh Chaura.

According to media reports, he is a former Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorist.

Badal's religious punishment

Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday started serving the religious punishment that was given to him by the highest temporal body of Sikhs-Akal Takht- in a 2015 sacrilege case.

The wheelchair-bound Punjab leader was seen sitting at the entrance of the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday morning, wearing a plaque around his neck and holding a spear.

Senior Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, brother-in-law of Badal, began his sentence by washing utensils at the Golden Temple.

Akal Takht has punished Sukhbir Badal with cleaning duty in the kitchens and bathrooms of several Gurdwaras, including Amritsar's Golden Temple, for favouring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the 2015 sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib.

His father, the late Parkash Singh Badal, also a former Punjab Chief Minister, has been stripped of the Fakhr-e-Qaum (pride of the Sikh community) honour that was bestowed on him in 2011 for services to the community.