Tiger Shroff gun firing: Bishnoi's aide Anil Pandit claims responsibility for attack

It has been over 24 hours since that shocking shooting at the Bollywood star Tiger Shroff sent shockwaves around the country. One question continuing to hang in the air. Why would anyone want to kill Tiger Shroff? And if it is indeed an assassination plot hatched by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, how is he managing to do this while being in jail? Our next report decoding all of this for you. Five shots, which reverberated across the nation. Tiger Shroff miraculously survived an assassination attempt. Not one, not two, but five bullets were fired at his car from point-blank range. The shooters fled on a bike. A bustling street in Mumbai's upscale Juhu almost came to stand still. The questions, the shock, the outrage soon followed. Who had targeted Tiger Shroff and why? Bollywood has long been on target of underworld gangs. In particular, one man, Lawrence Bishnoi, has vowed to kill superstar Salman Khan. Within minutes of the horror, news filtered in, Bishnoi gang allegedly claimed responsibility for the strike. Bishnoi's aide, Anil Pandit, in a Facebook post claimed that the attack was over Tiger's alleged association with Salman Khan. The Maharashtra government on its part vowed strong action, multiple police teams were formed, the deputy chief minister himself met the actor at his residence. But for the city of Mumbai, the horror memories were back. The attack on Tiger came almost exactly two years after the killing of popular politician Baba Siddiqui. Same modus operandi, same guns for hire, same brazen assassination attempt on a busy street. Baba Siddiqui could not survive. Thankfully, Tiger did. Beyond the eerie parallels with that killing, the growing concerns around Vishnoi's murderous obsession with Salman Khan over the 1998 Black Buck killing is now a massive law and order challenge. In 2024, Bishnoi's younger brother Anmol orchestrated firing at Salman Khan's residence through hired shooters. Earlier this year, shots were also fired at director Rohit Shetty's office, again allegedly carried out by Bishnoi gang. But the question remains, how does Lawrence Bishnoi gang really operate? How is the gangster striking such fear in hearts of the rich and famous while being lodged in Gujarat's Sabarmati jail? The answer lies in his transnational crime syndicate being run by close aides. One such aide is Anil Pandit. Pandit is reportedly 32 years old. He hails from Panipat in Haryana. He left the country in 2023 and came in contact with gangster Randeep Malik in Canada. Malik has long been considered a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi. Malik, along with another Bishnoi associate, Harman Sandhu, allegedly helped Pandit settle in California and carry out series of high-profile attacks through gunmen for hire in India. Three such hired gunmen were involved in carrying out the horrific attack on Tiger. They first fled Mumbai by road after the shooting and reached Surat. Later, they boarded a Delhi-bound train but were nabbed in Rajasthan by the anti-terror force. Police say they were planning to escape to Nepal. Three suspects took them off the train and questioned them. Initially, they said they were the ones who did the firing there yesterday. No weapons were recovered from him, but he has been questioned as a primary suspect. He probably hid the weapons somewhere in between. For now, the criminals who tried to kill Tiger have been nabbed. But the masterminds who are based abroad continue to elude the law. And Indian law enforcement agencies know that until it manages to bring these masterminds to justice, such crimes may continue to take place. Indian law enforcement agencies do believe that until it manages to bring these masterminds into justice, such crimes may continue to take place. This is Ashok reporting here for Beyond World, this one from Mumbai.