On a crisp spring morning in Brampton city of Canada’s Ontario province in Could, Harjit Singh Dhadda meticulously tied his conventional sage inexperienced turban as he acquired prepared for work.
He embraced his daughter Gurleen earlier than leaving for his trucking insurance coverage workplace in Mississauga close to Toronto’s bustling Pearson worldwide airport.
It was the final time Gurleen noticed her 51-year-old father alive. As Harjit reached the automotive park of his workplace on Could 14, two males confronted him. One in every of them pumped a number of bullets into Harjit’s physique earlier than fleeing in a stolen 2018 Dodge Challenger.
Harjit later died of his accidents at a neighborhood hospital.
Hours later, two males claimed accountability for Harjit’s homicide in a Fb put up, calling themselves members of a prison gang led by Lawrence Bishnoi, an Indian nationwide at present imprisoned at Sabarmati Central Jail within the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Barely a month after Harjit’s homicide, a businessman in Surrey, British Columbia, and one other in Harjit’s city, Brampton – each of Indian origin – had been shot. Native authorities say the murders signify a disturbing enlargement of prison networks rooted in India into Canadian territory – led by India’s most infamous organised crime syndicate, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
Now, a rising variety of political leaders in Canada need the federal authorities to behave, demanding that the Bishnoi gang be declared a terrorist organisation.
Lawrence Bishnoi amid heavy police safety whereas popping out of the Amritsar court docket complicated on October 31, 2022, in Amritsar, India (Sameer Sehgal/Hindustan Occasions by way of Getty Photographs)
‘Public security should come first’
“The terrorist designation allows police to make use of the mandatory instruments to analyze and produce this exercise to an finish. It offers police important investigative instruments,” British Columbia’s Premier David Eby mentioned in an announcement on June 17.
In July, his Alberta counterpart, Daniel Smith, echoed that decision. “Formally designating the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity will unlock crucial powers, permitting regulation enforcement businesses to entry the mandatory instruments and sources wanted to disrupt operations and shield our folks successfully,” Smith mentioned in a Fb put up on July 14.
Alberta’s Public Security Minister Mike Ellis mentioned there was credible intelligence indicating the involvement of the Bishnoi gang in extortion and focused violence within the province and elsewhere in Canada. “The gang originates from India, and ongoing investigations are inspecting why they’re particularly focusing on the South Asian group,” Ellis advised Al Jazeera in an announcement.
Jody Toor, a lawmaker from the Conservative Get together within the British Columbia Legislature, and Brampton metropolis Mayor Patrick Brown have additionally supported designating the Bishnoi gang a terrorist organisation.
The Canadian federal authorities has urged that it’s inspecting these calls for. “There may be precedent for prison organisations being designated this fashion, and I absolutely assist a radical, evidence-based method,” Secretary of State for Combating Crime Ruby Sahota advised Al Jazeera. “Public security should come first, and if a gaggle meets the factors, it ought to be listed immediately.”
Amarnath Amarasingam, a researcher on extremism and an affiliate professor at Queen’s College in Ontario, mentioned that itemizing the Bishnoi group as a terrorist organisation would considerably broaden regulation enforcement powers. It could enable regulation enforcement businesses to pursue terrorism-related expenses, criminalise recruitment or monetary assist for the group, seize and freeze property, and provides them better surveillance powers.
Canadian officers had, in 2024, accused the Bishnoi gang of appearing on the behest of Indian intelligence businesses to focus on critics of the Indian authorities on their soil.
“A terrorist designation would ship a powerful sign to India and different allies that Canada is taking the transnational menace severely. It could additionally improve information-sharing alternatives with international companions,” Amarasingam advised Al Jazeera. These companions embody the 5 Eyes alliance, which additionally consists of america, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
A terrorist tag might strengthen Canadian requests for arrests by means of organisations like Interpol, too, he added. It might set off sanctions towards the gang, permitting the federal government to institute journey bans, visa denials and monetary blacklisting of associates and funders.
However he warned that itemizing the group as a terrorist organisation might have its downsides. Whereas clearly concerned in prison exercise, the Bishnoi gang doesn’t seem to have political, spiritual or ideological aims – historically the bar that listings have wanted – he mentioned.
“Utilizing terrorism powers to focus on a gaggle that lacks this motivation might set a harmful precedent, weakening the credibility of Canada’s itemizing course of and decreasing the edge, opening the door for future political misuse,” Amarasingam mentioned.
A member of a Sikh organisation holds a placard displaying Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Amritsar on September 22, 2023. Nijjar’s killing in Surrey, British Columbia, first introduced the Bishnoi gang to international prominence, with Canadian officers claiming it labored with the Indian authorities to kill abroad dissidents (Narinder Nanu/ AFP)
An Indian intelligence asset?
However the Bishnoi gang is not any strange prison syndicate, in accordance with Canadian officers.
In recent times, the Indian authorities beneath Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confronted allegations that its intelligence brokers have been making an attempt to hold out focused assassinations of Sikh separatists abroad, particularly in Canada and the US.
Canada is dwelling to about 770,000 Sikhs, who make up 2.1 % of its inhabitants – their largest quantity exterior India. Lots of them moved to Canada within the Nineteen Eighties when Indian forces launched a violent crackdown on alleged supporters of a motion demanding a separate Sikh homeland, Khalistan, to be carved out of the northern Indian state of Punjab. India describes such separatists as “terrorists”.
It was the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, exterior a Sikh temple on June 18, 2023, that pushed Bishnoi and his gang to the centre of a bitter diplomatic warfare between Canada and India.
In October that 12 months, then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian diplomats had been amassing intelligence on “Canadians who’re opponents or in disagreement with the Modi authorities” and that the intelligence reached “prison organisations just like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to then end in violence towards Canadians on the bottom”.
Trudeau and his authorities immediately blamed the Modi authorities for Nijjar’s assassination. Nijjar was a outstanding supporter of a Khalistani state.
However New Delhi, whereas rejecting these allegations, has insisted that it has despatched greater than two dozen extradition requests to Canada, looking for Ottawa’s assist in getting Bishnoi gang members again to India to face “due authorized motion”. And it says that Canada hasn’t acted on its request.
As Canada and India commerce allegations, many within the Indian origin group are coping with mounting insecurity. May they be the following goal of the Bishnoi group?
Police pictures of Aman and Digvijay, two of the lads arrested for Harjit’s homicide (Courtesy of Peel Police, British Columbia)
‘Threatening name’
Over three a long time, Harjit, a Sikh entrepreneur, had constructed a life that resembled a Canadian immigrant success story.
He ran an organization referred to as G&G Trucking Options – a consultancy agency that suggested its shoppers on begin and run a trucking firm, and was a business insurance coverage dealer as properly. His enterprise expanded to Calgary and Edmonton, in Alberta, and he had almost 30 workers.
Then, on December 10, 2023 – his birthday – he obtained a cellphone name from somebody who recognized himself as an Indian gangster, his daughter Gurleen recalled. The caller demanded 500,000 Canadian {dollars} ($361,000) in extortion cash and threatened dire penalties if the cash wasn’t paid. Harjit refused to pay and knowledgeable regulation enforcement authorities.
“He advised me concerning the threatening name,” Gurleen, a 24-year-old enterprise scholar at York College in Toronto, advised Al Jazeera.
After the threatening name, Harjit modified his every day routine and started working his enterprise principally from dwelling. However ultimately, he resumed conferences with shoppers in his workplace, his daughter mentioned.
On Could 14, Gurleen obtained a name from her father’s workplace. He had been shot.
“I rushed to the workplace. There have been bullet casings scattered in all places. Police had cordoned off all the space. My father was rushed to the hospital, he later succumbed to his accidents,” mentioned Gurleen.
Police have arrested three males – recognized as Aman and Digvijay, each 21, and Shaheel, 22 – as suspects. However Harjit’s household says regulation enforcement have solely scratched the tip of the iceberg.
“Police merely arrested three youngsters. However who orchestrated this? I needed to know the person behind my father’s killing,” mentioned Gurleen.
In the meantime, two males – Rohit Godara and Goldy Brar – who referred to as themselves members of the Bishnoi gang, posted on Fb that they’d killed Harjit. They claimed that Harjit had helped a rival gang and was concerned in a homicide in India – allegations that the household denies. Police haven’t confirmed whether or not they imagine the Bishnoi gang was behind Harjit’s killing.
On June 12, 2025, one other Indian-origin businessman, Satwinder Sharma, was shot in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian origin gangster, Jiwan Fauji claimed accountability for the homicide. Indian police have labelled Fauji an alleged member of Babbar Khalsa Worldwide, a banned Khalistani outfit. Sharma’s household didn’t reply to an Al Jazeera request for an interview.
Slightly over every week later, on June 20, Brampton-based businessman, MP Dhanoa, was shot down. Once more, Godara and Brar claimed accountability on behalf of the Bishnoi gang in a Fb put up.
Harjit, Sharma and Dhanoa haven’t any recognized hyperlinks to the Khalistani motion.
However gang chief Lawrence Bishnoi, aside from his crime community, has offered himself as a Hindu nationalist in interviews from jail, and a few supporters of Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) authorities have spoken of how the gangster had scared Khalistan supporters.
Policemen escort jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi as they convey him earlier than the Patiala Home Court docket in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 18, 2023 (Dinesh Joshi/AP Photograph)
Rise to notoriety
Indian police officers say that Bishnoi, 32, controls greater than 700 sharpshooters who perform murders and extortion globally. And he does this from behind bars, shuffling between numerous prisons for almost a decade now.
Bishnoi and Brar gained vast notoriety in Could 2022, when the gang murdered outstanding Punjabi singer and rapper Sidhu Moosewala in Punjab. Police mentioned Brar allegedly orchestrated Moosewala’s killing from Canada.
Ajai Sahni, govt director of the New Delhi Institute for Battle Administration, mentioned establishing a command chain – and even defining what constitutes a gang – isn’t simple with transnational teams. “Any incident executed in India may be claimed by Bishnoi gang members in Canada or within the US, and vice versa by means of unverifiable social media accounts,” Sahni advised Al Jazeera. He urged that in such instances, even surveillance data towards suspects may not suffice as robust sufficient authorized proof.
Sanjay Verma, former Indian excessive commissioner – Canada expelled him after Trudeau’s allegations in 2023 – mentioned final 12 months that India had shared details about Brar’s presence in Canada with Ottawa.
In 2024, Bishnoi’s gang claimed accountability for the homicide of a 66-year-old politician, Baba Siddique, in Mumbai’s Bandra space. Two members of the Bishnoi gang had been additionally arrested for firing exterior the Mumbai residence of widespread Bollywood actor, Salman Khan.
Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, deputy inspector basic of the Anti-Gangster Activity Pressure in India’s Punjab, advocates for a joint data-sharing mechanism between nations affected by prison gangs, like Bishnoi.
“If we have now any proof, it ought to be promptly shared with our Canadian counterparts, who should examine it immediately and maintain us knowledgeable. Crime is crime – regardless of the place it happens on this planet,” Chauhan advised Al Jazeera. “There’s a very skinny line between organised crime and terrorism. These networks may be exploited for terrorist actions at any time, anyplace on this planet.”
The Bishnoi group has additionally claimed accountability for assaults on the properties of two outstanding Punjabi singers, AP Dhillon and Gippy Grewal, in British Columbia, over the previous two years, as its empire of concern has expanded from Mumbai to Mississauga. And on August 7, an alleged Bishnoi gang member claimed accountability for gunshots fired at a restaurant in British Columbia owned by Indian comic Kapil Sharma.
A banner with the picture of Sikh chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen on the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple, website of his June 2023 killing, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, September 20, 2023 (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
‘They may execute me’
Satish Kumar, a 73-year-old businessman in Surrey, British Columbia who migrated to Canada 45 years in the past, says he lives in fixed concern.
Kumar is the president of Lakshmi Narayan Temple in Surrey, a outstanding spiritual website for Hindus.
Earlier this 12 months, he obtained a cellphone name from a person who recognized himself as Godara, the Bishnoi affiliate who – together with Brar – claimed accountability for the killings of Harjit and Dhanoa. “He demanded two million Canadian {dollars} ($1.45m) as extortion,” Kumar advised Al Jazeera, including that he blocked the quantity.
Later he reported the decision to the police, after receiving threats from different numbers. “They despatched a number of voice notes on Could 28, 2025, threatening to kill me and hurt my enterprise premises, however I blocked the numbers”, mentioned Kumar.
Then, the threats turned to bullets.
On June 7, males allegedly belonging to the Bishnoi gang fired photographs at numerous buildings owned by Kumar. “The gang members filmed the shootings at three of my premises and despatched me the footage, however I refused to pay extortion,” he mentioned.
Kumar mentioned he was pissed off with what he referred to as an “insufficient response” by the Canadian police. “They (gangsters) might execute me at any second. I nonetheless obtain calls from them. My household is beneath fixed stress,” he advised Al Jazeera.
As assaults escalate, the South Asian group in Surrey and Brampton has been campaigning for extra security on social media, importing movies of varied shootings within the two cities. Since 2003, gang-related homicides in British Columbia have climbed from 21 % to 46 % of all homicides in 2023, in accordance with the provincial police.
“Throughout work, I can momentarily neglect about these gangs,” Kumar mentioned. “However as soon as I end my work, then it’s there – this concern.”
