It was a carnage unlike anything Mumbai had seen in nearly three decades.
Veteran politician Baba Siddiqui was getting into his car in Mumbai's affluent Bandra on Saturday night when smoke filled the air from firecrackers. Six bullets hit Siddiqui in the chest when three masked assailants hiding nearby opened fire. He fell to the ground in a pool of blood. Siddiqui died before being rushed to the hospital.
The killing was quickly claimed by one of India's most notorious gangsters. Lawrence Bishnoi has been in jail since 2014 but continues to control one of the country's biggest criminal empires from behind bars. His so-called Bishnoi gang has been linked to several high-profile murders in India, including that of a popular Punjabi rapper, and is accused of being involved in transnational terrorism in Canada. Mumbai Police confirmed that they are investigating the role of the Bishnoi gang in the murder.
The killing has led to fears that Bishnoi is trying to fill the void left by Mumbai's most notorious gang leaders. “This horrific incident exposes the complete breakdown of law and order in Maharashtra,” said Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party.
For many in India's thriving film and financial capital, the brazen killing was a reminder of Mumbai's dark criminal past and fueled fears of a recurrence of the gang violence and organized crime that ruled the city for decades.
Siddiqui, 66, is not only a well-known political face in Mumbai, but also known for his close ties with Bollywood stars and chieftain Salman Khan. It was this friendship that led to the assassination of the politician in a Facebook post that allegedly belonged to the Bishnai gang after the murder. “Salman Khan, we don't want this war but you cost our brother's life,” the post read.
However, Mumbai's police and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde have vowed not to repeat the killing at a time when Bollywood stars are often prime targets for criminal extortion and violence. “Whether it is a Bishnoi gang or an underworld gang, we will not spare anyone,” Shinde said.
By Monday night, the shooters and several alleged conspirators had been arrested by police, but other key suspects had fled. According to reports, those arrested told the police that Siddiqui's son was also on the target list.
Spark plug for fuse
From the 1970s to the late 1990s, the closure of Mumbai's textile mills led thousands of unemployed men to join criminal gangs. Violent criminal lords – the most famous of whom was Dawood Ibrahim – began to run the city, terrorizing residents and extorting money from everyone from Bollywood stars to big business executives.
The campaign of violence was eventually brought under control in the late 1990s, but hundreds were killed before a series of bombings and politicians, film directors and gang leaders were among the mass shootings after a bloody battle between gangs and police. daytime
In the years since then, the grip of gangs has weakened and Mumbai has lost its reputation for crime as one of India's safest cities. However, it was only earlier this year that the Bishnai gang – previously operating mostly in northern India – first revealed its presence in the southern metropolis.
Salman Khan, one of Bollywood's biggest stars, and the 1998 case in which Khan was implicated in the poaching and killing of two blackbuck deer appear to have brought the Bishnoi gang to Mumbai. Ten years later, the Bollywood star was convicted in the case and sentenced to a suspended five-year prison term.
According to the Bishnoi community in Punjab, blackbucks are considered sacred reincarnations of their spiritual leader, and Khan appeared as a mob boss who personally shot them dead. Bishnoi vowed revenge on the Bollywood star, openly saying during a court appearance in 2018: “We will kill Salman Khan”.
The feud escalated earlier this year when a member of the Bishnoi gang opened fire outside Khan's Mumbai residence. Mumbai police said they foiled two other assassination attempts on Khan and vowed to wipe out the Bishnoi gang from the city.
Nevertheless, Saturday's high-profile assassination, said to have been carefully planned for months, indicates that the Bishnai gang is still deeply entrenched in Mumbai.
