World

Bollywood Star’s Home Shot Up Over Decades-Old Killing of 2 Antelopes

BANG FOR THE BUCK

Two suspects in the attack reportedly belong to a gang from a religious sect for which the animals hold a special significance.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s home was attacked by gang members as a retaliation for the killing of two antelopes, reports say.
Sujit Jaiswal/AFP via Getty Images

Police in India have arrested two gang members who allegedly opened fire on the home of a famous Bollywood actor over the weekend—apparently as revenge for the star’s killing of two antelopes in 1998. Salman Khan, 58, has round the clock protection from armed police owing to threats to his life from the Bishnoi gang, a criminal group which hails from a religious sect that considers blackbucks to be the reincarnation of their guru. Khan has been menaced by the gang since he shot two blackbucks on a hunting trip over a quarter of a century ago, with the gang’s incarcerated leader—Lawrence Bishnoi—previously threatening to kill him. Khan was at home when two men on a motorcycle opened fire at his first-floor apartment in Mumbai in the early hours of Sunday, police said. Authorities say they then caught up with the two suspects—ages 21 and 24—near a temple after the attack.

Read it at The Guardian