Saif Ali Khan stabbing: Inside job or Bishnoi hand?

As actor Saif Ali Khan, 54, recovers after seven hours of reconstructive surgery on the neck and around the liver following a stabbing incident by an intruder at his home, authoritative sources tell me about two possibilities.

One, it was an inside job with the help of one of the more than two dozen people employed by Khan and his actor wife Kareena Kapoor Khan. The other, a horrific throwback to the blackbuck shooting incident when superstar Salman Khan allegedly killed two blackbucks sacred to the Bishnois, an animistic group out on a hunt with Saif Ali Khan, actors Tabu and Sonali Bendre.

The incident dates back to 1998 and has had multiple tragic consequences, including the murder of legislator Baba Siddiqui (uber Bollywood mediator close to all the three Khan superstars) who was murdered late last year when Salman Khan was on the target of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

Salman Khan has had a special threat perception exercise carried out by the Mumbai police and the central Indian agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and carries out “extremely limited movements” in bullet proof surroundings. His multiple luxury cars are bullet-proofed and his home extensively protected by latest technology. Incidentally, Salman Khan and Saif Ali Khan share the same pricey Bandra neighbourhood that is already highly policed.

While Saif Ali Khan is not on social media, Kareena posts actively.

Sources say that Mumbai police has already told Kareena to be less active on social media, particularly Instagram, as she posted about a “girl’s night out” with her sister actor Karishma Kapoor, actor Sonam Kapoor and producer Rhea Kapoor. Police sources say that Kareena had just returned home when the incident occurred around 2.45am. The police say that the intruders would have been monitoring Khan’s social media account and would have anticipated that Saif Ali Khan would be asleep.

For the first time sources established the sequence of events for Gulf News and say that the intruders were confronted by Saif Ali Khan in his children Taimur and Jeh’s nursery suite. Khan owns four floors in the building, say police sources, and literally took on the robbers in his son’s area of the house - playground.

The state of security in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, continues to worry the heavy hitters since the Siddiqui murder. The message has been sent to and received by Bollywood and the billionaires who call Mumbai home. The message is that nobody is safe.

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang is only the latest one holding A grade actors hostage. From Haji Mastaan to Dawood Ibrahim, Bollywood has been held hostage by the mafia to pay protection money or for a share in the profits. Remember the Gulshan Kumar murder, or the hit on Rakesh Roshan, which he recently said was done by the ubiquitous “underworld” to get his then superstar son Hrithik Roshan to act in an underworld financed film.

Authorities tell me that all the actors present with Salman Khan on the day of the blackbuck incident are on the target of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, and they were aware that Saif was on the radar. But then, questions arise as to how this could even happen in such a highly protected area.

Bollywood actors are a soft target. They have to be visible, engage with the audience and paparazzi, and also ensure safety. While Saif is out of surgery the bigger questions remain.

Says an actor bitterly: “Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma are attacked and trolled for moving to England. Can you even save our lives here?” Good question. Clearly the authorities have no answer.