24 bullets kill India Singer

Murdered Indian singer Sidhu Moose Wala was hit by 24 bullets, health officials with access to his autopsy report have told BBC News.

Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moose Wala, was shot by unidentified people while travelling on Sunday evening. He was 28.

Thousands of fans gathered outside his village home to pay their respects. He was cremated on Tuesday.

Six people have been detained in connection with the murder.

The attack took place a day after his security was trimmed by the state government and the murder has led to a political storm, sparking massive outrage from fans and opposition leaders. Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has ordered an inquiry – led by a high court judge – into the incident.

Video footage of his car showed it was sprayed with bullets, with a number of them piercing the windscreen and the bonnet.

A preliminary post-mortem, done by a team of five doctors, found bullet marks on Moose Wala’s chest, feet and abdomen, sources in Punjab state’s health department told BBC.

A senior health official said a medical team would do a detailed examination of the injury marks.

On Tuesday, thousands of people gathered outside the slain rapper’s home in his village – Moosa – in Mansa district to attend his cremation. A large number of police were deployed to ensure the ceremony remained peaceful.

BBC Punjabi’s Sarabjit Dhaliwal reported from the village that thousands of the rapper’s fans from the neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the capital, Delhi, visited to pay their last respects.

They included a couple and their six-year-old son. The parents told the BBC that they had never seen the rapper but loved his music.

Since the morning, long queues formed outside the singer’s home as people waited to pay their last respects amid chants of “Long live Sidhu Moose Wala”.

It was obvious how much people loved Moose Wala from the emotions that we witnessed here today, our correspondent said.

On Sunday, state police Chief VK Bhawra said a Canada-based gangster had said they were behind the attack. But Moose Wala’s family demanded an apology from Mr. Bhawra for linking the death to gang rivalry without a proper investigation.

On Monday, Mr. Bhawra clarified in a statement that he hadn’t said that Moose Wala was a “gangster or affiliated with gangsters”.

“One Goldy Brar has claimed the responsibility on behalf of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. The investigation would look into all aspects regarding the murder,” he said.

Opposition leaders have questioned why the singer’s security cover was scaled back.

Police said that Moose Wala’s security detail had been reduced to two commandos from four, and that these officers weren’t travelling with the singer when he was attacked.

He was among over 400 people in Punjab whose security detail was withdrawn or scaled back recently by the government.

 

Source: BBC