An Indian army general who helped lead a deadly 1984 raid on Sikhism's holiest shrine in India has been stabbed and wounded in London, in what he claims was an assassination attempt, The Associated Press reports.

Lt. Gen. Kuldeep Singh Brar, 78, was set upon by four men and slashed in the neck as he walked with his wife near London's busy Oxford Street shopping area on Sunday, Sept 30. He was treated in a London hospital and released.

London's Metropolitan Police force said it was treating the attack as attempted murder and appealed for witnesses. Police say they have not established a motive for the stabbing.

But Brar linked the attack to his role in the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out Sikh militants, an operation in which more than 1,000 people were killed.

Brar said he was attacked as he and his wife walked back to their hotel from a restaurant.

"Suddenly four bearded tough looking men, Sikhs wearing black jackets and black clothes pounced on me, one of them pushed my wife to the side, she fell down and started screaming for help," Brar, speaking with bandages on his face, neck and arms, told New Delhi Television.

"Three of them charged at me, one pulled a 'kirpan', a dagger or a knife — can't remember exactly what it was now — at that time there was a scuffle, and he tried to assassinate me and he slashed my neck with the knife.

"I fought back. Being an army man, I knew how to defend myself, I kicked, and boxed and warded off the attack, but in the meantime they had already slashed my neck," he said.

Brar said the attackers ran off after his wife's screams drew people in the vicinity. India's External Minister S. M. Krishna, who is in New York, told reporters that the Indian government would take up the investigation into the attack on Brar with British authorities.