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Baba Siddique was an influential politician who was part of the coalition ruling the state of Maharashtra.
The murder of a politician in a busy area of the Indian city of Mumbai has sent shockwaves across the country.
Baba Ziauddin Siddique, 66, was shot dead Saturday night near his car as he left his son's office. He later died in hospital.
The assassination of Siddique, an influential politician who was part of the coalition ruling the state of Maharashtra – of which Mumbai is the capital – has sparked a political blame game.
The motive for the killing is not yet clear, but for many it brings back memories of the 1990s, when politicians and film stars were frequent targets of Mumbai's underworld.
Police have already arrested three people and say the investigation is continuing. According to local media, the arrested men are part of a notorious gang whose leader is currently in prison.
Who was Baba Siddique?
Born in the eastern state of Bihar, Siddique migrated to Mumbai at the age of five with his father, a watchmaker.
He began his political career in the 1980s as a student leader in the Congress party, soon heading its youth wing in Mumbai. He then moved into local council politics before being elected to the State Legislative Assembly three times in a row and becoming a minister in 2004 for about four years.
In February, he left the Congress to join the nationalist Congress Party which, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, currently governs the state.
Apart from his political activities, Siddique also made headlines for his lavish iftar parties held during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, attended by Bollywood's biggest stars.
It was at her iftar party in 2013 that superstars Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan ended their much-discussed breakup with a hug – propelling the annual Siddique affair to the status of a must-see event on the social calendar. the city,” wrote the Midday newspaper in 2016.
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Bollywood superstars Salman Khan (left) and Shah Rukh Khan (right) reportedly ended a breakup at Siddique's iftar party in 2013.
How was Siddique killed?
The politician was shot dead outside his son's office as he was about to get into his car in the busy Bandra district.
Police said three shooters fired six to seven bullets, hitting Siddique's abdomen and chest, and fled the scene. A passerby was also injured by a stray bullet in the leg.
Investigators said they recovered two pistols and 28 live rounds from the arrested men.
Siddique had three police guards – local media reported that his security had been increased a few days ago – but the suspects allegedly distracted them by setting off a “smoke firecracker”.
Where is the investigation?
Police were granted custody of the arrested men for a week. They say they are looking for their accomplices.
“We have formed 15 teams and investigation is underway to identify who provided logistical support to the shooters,” said senior police official Datta Nalawade.
Although police have not confirmed it, several reports citing sources have linked the arrested men to the notorious Bishnoi gang. The gang's leader, Lawrence Bishnoi, is accused in several cases and is currently in a high-security prison in Gujarat state.
Hours after the shooting, a man claiming to be a member of the gang posted on Facebook that he was behind Siddique's murder. The police have not yet confirmed this.
Although Bishnoi has been in jail since 2015, he is regularly in the news. Many social media accounts claiming to belong to him or his associates often posted his selfies from prison. He even gave interviews to a television channel in 2022, triggering an investigation.
Many reports about Bishnoi are based on police sources and it is unclear how he conducts the gang's operations while incarcerated.
The gang's name emerged in connection with the murder of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moosewala in 2022.
In April, police arrested two gang members who allegedly fired shots outside actor Salman Khan's apartment in Mumbai.
On Monday, Canadian police also said they believed the Bishnoi group had ties to Indian government agents who were using the gang to target Sikh separatists on their soil. India has not officially responded to the police's claims.
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Lawrence Bishnoi (second from left) has been in prison since 2015 but is frequently in the news
What else happened?
Siddique's murder is the first major assassination of a politician in Mumbai since the 1990s, when the high-profile killings of politicians, businessmen and Bollywood celebrities by underworld criminal gangs Mumbai were not uncommon.
According to local media, he received death threats two weeks ago, which led to his security being reinforced.
His assassination days later put the state government on alert as Maharashtra is set to hold assembly elections soon.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called the killing “a complete breakdown of law and order in Maharashtra”, and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the incident had frightened not only the population of Maharashtra “but the entire country”.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde defended his government.
“(The culprits) will not be spared, no matter who they are, whether it is the Bishnoi gang or any other underworld gang…Those who receive threats, their safety is the responsibility of the government of the State and he will assume his responsibility,” he said.
