On the 542nd foundation day of Bishnoi Samaj, Ramesh Bishnoi, uncle of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, today again appealed to Bollywood actor Salman Khan to apologise at the Bishnoi community’s Mukti Dham Mukam temple in Bikaner for the killing of two blackbucks, assuring him complete safety if he came to pay obeisance.Ramesh Bishnoi, younger brother of Lawrence’s father, made it clear that he did not endorse violence in any form and had been telling Lawrence and others to shun it. “I do not support any killing or attack on Salman or anyone associated with him by the Lawrence group,” he said. “I am just saying that anger remains in the community and it should be resolved.”Talking to The Tribune over the phone, he said neither his nephew nor anyone else in the community had personal enmity with the actor, and the matter would have been settled long ago had Salman sought forgiveness at the temple. “There was anger among Bishnois and it could have been addressed long ago,” he said.Reacting to fears expressed by Salman’s father, Salim Khan, that the actor could be harmed if he went to the temple, Ramesh Bishnoi rejected the apprehension and said he personally guaranteed Salman’s security. “The episode should end. An apology is enough. This has gone on too long,” he said.The Bishnoi community follows 29 tenets laid down by Guru Jambheshwar in the 15th century, which place great emphasis on protecting trees and wildlife. Bishnoi villages are concentrated in Rajasthan, particularly in Bikaner, Jodhpur, Nagaur and Barmer districts, and the community is also settled in Haryana’s Hisar, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts and in Punjab’s Abohar-Fazilka belt.Salman Khan was accused of killing two blackbucks, an animal revered by the Bishnois, in Kankani village near Jodhpur in October 1998 during the shooting of a film. In 2018, a Jodhpur trial court held him guilty under the Wildlife Protection Act and sentenced him to five years in prison, after which he got bail. Co-accused Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam were acquitted. The case and the community’s anger over it have since been cited by Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang in its threats to the actor, including the firing outside his Mumbai residence in April 2024 and the recent attack linked to actor Tiger Shroff.