Gurdwara shooting: Badal meets injured; appeals for peace

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Describing the Wisconsin gurdwara shooting that claimed six lives as 'very shocking', Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has appealed to the Sikhs in the US to keep 'peace and harmony', as he met the victims' families and visited the injured.

Badal, who is on a private visit to the US along with several of his Cabinet colleagues, reached Milwaukee area in Wisconsin state on Wednesday and met the victims' families.

The Punjab chief minister is also expected to attend the visitation for the gurdwara shooting victims, which will take place from 9 am to 11 am local time at the Oak Creek High School.

"I came here for a wedding; I never expected such a thing," Badal told the local Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. When the shooting incident occurred on Sunday, Badal said he was in Delhi.

He arrived in the Milwaukee area late Tuesday and visited Froedtert Hospital, where three of those wounded in the attack are in critical condition. He also met other victims' families, the daily said. "I went to share their grief," he was quoted as saying.

Badal called the attack "very shocking," especially since it took place in a sacred place. "Everyone is feeling bad about this incident," he was quoted as saying. "What was in the mind of that person?" Badal said of the gunman.

"Everyone wants to know why did this happen? That is the main question mark. And this type of incident should not happen again," he told the daily.

Earlier, on his arrival at the Chicago airport, Badal urged the members of the Sikh community in the US to keep 'peace and harmony' despite the tragic incident, the worst for a small but strong community in the US. "Everybody is worried. We never expected such a thing would happen in the US," Badal was quoted as saying by The Chicago Tribune.