Canada murders spark calls to label India’s Bishnoi gang a ‘terror’ group

On a crisp spring morning in Brampton town of Canada’s Ontario province in May, Harjit Singh Dhadda meticulously tied his traditional sage green turban as he got ready for work.

He embraced his daughter Gurleen before leaving for his trucking insurance office in Mississauga near Toronto’s bustling Pearson international airport.

It was the last time Gurleen saw her 51-year-old father alive. As Harjit reached the car park of his office on May 14, two men confronted him. One of them pumped multiple bullets into Harjit’s body before fleeing in a stolen 2018 Dodge Challenger.

Harjit later died of his injuries at a local hospital.

Hours later, two men claimed responsibility for Harjit’s murder in a Facebook post, calling themselves members of a criminal gang led by Lawrence Bishnoi, an Indian national currently imprisoned at Sabarmati Central Jail in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Barely a month after Harjit’s murder, a businessman in Surrey, British Columbia, and another in Harjit’s town, Brampton – both of Indian origin – were shot. Local authorities say the murders represent a disturbing expansion of criminal networks rooted in India into Canadian territory – led by India’s most notorious organised crime syndicate, the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.

Now, a growing number of political leaders in Canada want the federal government to act, demanding that the Bishnoi gang be declared a terrorist organisation.

‘Public safety must come first’

“The terrorist designation enables police to use the necessary tools to investigate and bring this activity to an end. It gives police significant investigative tools,” British Columbia’s Premier David Eby said in a statement on June 17.

In July, his Alberta counterpart, Daniel Smith, echoed that call. “Formally designating the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity will unlock critical powers, allowing law enforcement agencies to access the necessary tools and resources needed to disrupt operations and protect our people effectively,” Smith said in a Facebook post on July 14.

Alberta’s Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said there was credible intelligence indicating the involvement of the Bishnoi gang in extortion and targeted violence in the province and elsewhere in Canada. “The gang originates from India, and ongoing investigations are examining why they are specifically targeting the South Asian community,” Ellis told Al Jazeera in a statement.

Jody Toor, a lawmaker from the Conservative Party in the British Columbia Legislature, and Brampton city Mayor Patrick Brown have also supported designating the Bishnoi gang a terrorist organisation.

The Canadian federal government has suggested that it is examining these demands. “There is precedent for criminal organisations being designated this way, and I fully support a thorough, evidence-based approach,” Secretary of State for Combating Crime Ruby Sahota told Al Jazeera. “Public safety must come first, and if a group meets the criteria, it should be listed without delay.”

Amarnath Amarasingam, a researcher on extremism and an associate professor at Queen’s University in Ontario, said that listing the Bishnoi group as a terrorist organisation would significantly broaden law enforcement powers. It would allow law enforcement agencies to pursue terrorism-related charges, criminalise recruitment or financial support for the group, seize and freeze assets, and give them greater surveillance powers.

Canadian officials had, in 2024, accused the Bishnoi gang of acting at the behest of Indian intelligence agencies to target critics of the Indian government on their soil.

“A terrorist designation would send a strong signal to India and other allies that Canada is taking the transnational threat seriously. It would also increase information-sharing opportunities with global partners,” Amarasingam told Al Jazeera. Those partners include the Five Eyes alliance, which also includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

A terrorist tag could strengthen Canadian requests for arrests through organisations like Interpol, too, he added. It could trigger sanctions against the gang, allowing the government to institute travel bans, visa denials and financial blacklisting of associates and funders.

But he warned that listing the group as a terrorist organisation could have its downsides. While clearly involved in criminal activity, the Bishnoi gang doesn’t appear to have political, religious or ideological objectives – traditionally the bar that listings have needed – he said.

“Using terrorism powers to target a group that lacks this motivation could set a dangerous precedent, weakening the credibility of Canada’s listing process and lowering the threshold, opening the door for future political misuse,” Amarasingam said.

An Indian intelligence asset?

But the Bishnoi gang is no ordinary criminal syndicate, according to Canadian officials.

In recent years, the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has faced allegations that its intelligence agents have been attempting to carry out targeted assassinations of Sikh separatists overseas, especially in Canada and the US.

Canada is home to about 770,000 Sikhs, who make up 2.1 percent of its population – their largest number outside India. Many of them moved to Canada in the 1980s when Indian forces launched a violent crackdown on alleged supporters of a movement 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, outside a Sikh temple on June 18, 2023, that pushed Bishnoi and his gang to the centre of a bitter diplomatic war between Canada and India.

In October that year, then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that Indian diplomats were collecting intelligence on “Canadians who are opponents or in disagreement with the Modi government” and that the intelligence reached “criminal organisations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to then result in violence against Canadians on the ground”.

Trudeau and his government directly blamed the Modi government for Nijjar’s assassination. Nijjar was a prominent supporter of a Khalistani state.

But New Delhi, while rejecting these allegations, has insisted that it has sent more than two dozen extradition requests to Canada, seeking Ottawa’s help in getting Bishnoi gang members back to India to face “due legal action”. And it says that Canada hasn’t acted on its request.

As Canada and India trade allegations, many in the Indian origin community are dealing with mounting insecurity. Could they be the next target of the Bishnoi group?

‘Threatening call’

Over three decades, Harjit, a Sikh entrepreneur, had built a life that resembled a Canadian immigrant success story.

He ran a company called G&G Trucking Solutions – a consultancy firm that advised its clients on how to start and run a trucking company, and was a commercial insurance broker as well. His business expanded to Calgary and Edmonton, in Alberta, and he had nearly 30 employees.

Then, on December 10, 2023 – his birthday – he received a phone call from someone who identified himself as an Indian gangster, his daughter Gurleen recalled. The caller demanded 500,000 Canadian dollars ($361,000) in extortion money and threatened dire consequences if the money wasn’t paid. Harjit refused to pay and informed law enforcement authorities.

“He told me about the threatening call,” Gurleen, a 24-year-old business student at York University in Toronto, told Al Jazeera.

After the threatening call, Harjit changed his daily routine and began operating his business mostly from home. But eventually, he resumed meetings with clients in his office, his daughter said.

On May 14, Gurleen received a call from her father’s office. He had been shot.

“I rushed to the office. There were bullet casings scattered everywhere. Police had cordoned off the entire area. My father was rushed to the hospital, he later succumbed to his injuries,” said Gurleen.

Police have arrested three men – identified as Aman and Digvijay, both 21, and Shaheel, 22 – as suspects. But Harjit’s family says law enforcement have only scratched the tip of the iceberg.

“Police merely arrested three kids. But who orchestrated this? I wanted to know the man behind my father’s killing,” said Gurleen.

Meanwhile, two men – Rohit Godara and Goldy Brar – who called themselves members of the Bishnoi gang, posted on Facebook that they had killed Harjit. They claimed that Harjit had helped a rival gang and was involved in a murder in India – allegations that the family denies. Police have not confirmed whether they believe the Bishnoi gang was behind Harjit’s killing.

On June 12, 2025, another Indian-origin businessman, Satwinder Sharma, was shot in Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian origin gangster, Jiwan Fauji claimed responsibility for the murder. Indian police have labelled Fauji an alleged member of Babbar Khalsa International, a banned Khalistani outfit. Sharma’s family did not respond to an Al Jazeera request for an interview.

A little over a week later, on June 20, Brampton-based businessman, MP Dhanoa, was shot down. Again, Godara and Brar claimed responsibility on behalf of the Bishnoi gang in a Facebook post.

Harjit, Sharma and Dhanoa have no known links to the Khalistani movement.

But gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi, apart from his crime network, has presented himself as a Hindu nationalist in interviews from jail, and some supporters of Modi’s Hindu majoritarian Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government have spoken of how the gangster had scared Khalistan supporters.

Rise to notoriety

Indian police officials say that Bishnoi, 32, controls more than 700 sharpshooters who carry out murders and extortion globally. And he does this from behind bars, shuffling between various prisons for nearly a decade now.

Bishnoi and Brar gained wide notoriety in May 2022, when the gang murdered prominent Punjabi singer and rapper Sidhu Moosewala in Punjab. Police said Brar allegedly orchestrated Moosewala’s killing from Canada.

Ajai Sahni, executive director of the New Delhi Institute for Conflict Management, said establishing a command chain – and even defining what constitutes a gang – isn’t easy with transnational groups. “Any incident executed in India can be claimed by Bishnoi gang members in Canada or in the US, and vice versa through unverifiable social media accounts,” Sahni told Al Jazeera. He suggested that in such cases, even surveillance records against suspects might not suffice as strong enough legal evidence.

Sanjay Verma, former Indian high commissioner – Canada expelled him after Trudeau’s allegations in 2023 – said last year that India had shared information about Brar’s presence in Canada with Ottawa.

In 2024, Bishnoi’s gang claimed responsibility for the murder of a 66-year-old politician, Baba Siddique, in Mumbai’s Bandra area. Two members of the Bishnoi gang were also arrested for firing outside the Mumbai residence of popular Bollywood actor, Salman Khan.

Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, deputy inspector general of the Anti-Gangster Task Force in India’s Punjab, advocates for a joint data-sharing mechanism between countries affected by criminal gangs, like Bishnoi.

“If we have any evidence, it should be promptly shared with our Canadian counterparts, who must investigate it without delay and keep us informed. Crime is crime – no matter where it occurs in the world,” Chauhan told Al Jazeera. “There is a very thin line between organised crime and terrorism. These networks can be exploited for terrorist activities at any time, anywhere in the world.”

The Bishnoi group has also claimed responsibility for attacks on the homes of two prominent Punjabi singers, AP Dhillon and Gippy Grewal, in British Columbia, over the past two years, as its empire of fear has expanded from Mumbai to Mississauga. And on August 7, an alleged Bishnoi gang member claimed responsibility for gunshots fired at a cafe in British Columbia owned by Indian comedian Kapil Sharma.

‘They could execute me’

Satish Kumar, a 73-year-old businessman in Surrey, British Columbia who migrated to Canada 45 years ago, says he lives in constant fear.

Kumar is the president of Lakshmi Narayan Temple in Surrey, a prominent religious site for Hindus.

Earlier this year, he received a phone call from a man who identified himself as Godara, the Bishnoi associate who – along with Brar – claimed responsibility for the killings of Harjit and Dhanoa. “He demanded two million Canadian dollars [$1.45m] as extortion,” Kumar told Al Jazeera, adding that he blocked the number.

Later he reported the call to the police, after receiving threats from other numbers. “They sent multiple voice notes on May 28, 2025, threatening to kill me and harm my business premises, but I blocked the numbers”, said Kumar.

Then, the threats turned to bullets.

On June 7, men allegedly belonging to the Bishnoi gang fired shots at various buildings owned by Kumar. “The gang members filmed the shootings at three of my premises and sent me the footage, but I refused to pay extortion,” he said.

Kumar said he was frustrated with what he called an “inadequate response” by the Canadian police. “They [gangsters] could execute me at any moment. I still receive calls from them. My family is under constant stress,” he told Al Jazeera.

As attacks escalate, the South Asian community in Surrey and Brampton has been campaigning for more safety on social media, uploading videos of various shootings in the two cities. Since 2003, gang-related homicides in British Columbia have climbed from 21 percent to 46 percent of all homicides in 2023, according to the provincial police.

“During work, I can momentarily forget about these gangs,” Kumar said. “But once I finish my work, then it’s there – this fear.”