An Indian politician and former minister, Baba Siddique, was gunned down in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India. The killing took place near the office of his son, also a political leader. Reports said that gunmen had opened fire at him in broad daylight. He was 66 years old.
Two suspects have been brought into custody, but a third suspect is still at large. The motive for the killing is not known so far, although early reports indicated that the culprits may belong to the gang of infamous criminal Lawrence Bishnoi, whose several murder plans while in jail he was serving time for. He happens to be one of the people who masterminded several high-profile murder cases, including that of Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022.
Siddique is an important Maharashtra politician who only yesterday joined the National Congress Party, which is part of the coalition government that runs the state in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, but had left Congress. The incident took place at a time when the city was bolstered by security personnel due to a major Hindu festival that is being celebrated today.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said he was shocked by the “cowardly attack” and called for a probe. Opposition parties have attacked the state government on charges of lapses in security, especially since Siddique had received an upgradation in his security detail just few days earlier owing to prior death threats.
The state government assured that a comprehensive inquiry would be conducted to deliver the rightful result to the incident. Mumbai is still put under tight alert with the daily investigations into this shocking event.
