Indian Woman Shot for Pausing During Dance Performance at Wedding

The shooting, which was caught on video, took place in a village in the district of Chitrakoot, state of Uttar Pradesh on Nov. 30, according to the Press Trust of India.

As seen in the video, the woman dances on a stage, takes a pause and falls down clutching her face after a gunshot is fired.

The dancer, identified only as Hina, 22, took a bullet to the jaw, while two others in the audience also sustained gunshot wounds.

Hina, who stopped the performance due to a technical glitch, is now in a stable condition after receiving treatment.

“We were dancing when a man asked us to stop. We cooperated and even the music was stopped. We were waiting on the stage and suddenly the man (accused) aimed directly at Hina and fired a shot. She was hit in the chin and suffered serious injuries. It was just Hina who was hurt and no one else,” a co-dancer told local outlet News18.

Two suspects, identified as Sudhir Singh and Phool Singh, were arrested on Dec. 6.

Guests attending weddings in certain parts of the country typically carry guns to celebrate the occasion, but things sometimes get out of hand, especially with alcohol consumption.

In 2016, a similar incident occurred in the state of Punjab when a pregnant woman took a bullet while dancing at a wedding.

Gun injuries allegedly take place by accident in other cases, such as in 2018 when a man celebrating his daughter’s wedding mistakenly shot a neighbor.

As of 2017, there are approximately 71.1 million civilian guns — both legally and illegally held — in India, according to GunPolicy.org. This indicates more than five guns for every 100 people in the country, which had a population of around 1.339 billion in the said year.

The majority of the guns are believed to be unregistered and illegally held. To obtain them legally, one must complete several steps, such as joining a shooting club, getting a medical clearance (proving physical and mental health) and having a safe space for storage, according to Newsweek.

Indian Twitter users commented on the incident:

Feature Image Screenshots via @alok_pandey