On September 29, 2025, the Canadian Federal Government formally designated the Indian-origin organized crime group known as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang as a ‘terrorist entity’ under the provisions of the Criminal Code, citing its alleged involvement in targeting specific communities and fostering a pervasive ‘climate of fear and intimidation’ within the country. This marks only the second instance of an Indian criminal gang being designated as such abroad, following Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company, whose leader was declared a global terrorist by both the United Nations (UN) and the United States (US), among others.
Announcing the decision, Public Safety Canada stated in its official press release:
The Bishnoi Gang is a transnational criminal organization operating primarily out of India. They have a presence in Canada and are active in areas with significant diaspora communities. The Bishnoi Gang engages in murder, shootings and arson, and generates terror through extortion and intimidation. They create a climate of insecurity in these communities by targeting them, their prominent community members, businesses, and cultural figures. Listing the Bishnoi Gang will help Canadian security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies in combatting their crimes and making communities safer.
Soon after the announcement, unidentified assailants opened fire on the Indian-origin-owned Punjabi-Hindi radio station ‘Swift 1200 AM’ in Surrey, British Columbia, late on September 29, 2025. The Surrey Police Service (SPS) termed it a ‘targeted drive-by attack’ linked to Canada’s ongoing extortion crisis against South Asian businesses. The station had recently aired programs on extortion threats against Indian-owned businesses and Ottawa’s decision to list the Lawrence Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity. No injuries were reported, and no arrests have been made so far.
The recent surge in violent incidents, including extortion and shootings targeting local Indian-origin businesses and cultural figures, prompted Canadian politicians – including provincial premiers, municipal mayors, and community leaders representing constituencies with sizable Indian-origin populations – to call for the Bishnoi gang’s designation as a terrorist organization.
In response to the escalating threats, the provincial government of British Columbia established the Provincial Extortion Task Force on September 17, 2025, which has already registered numerous extortion cases. From November 2023 to late September 2025, Surrey registered 48 such complaints, 29 of which involved gunfire. Abbotsford logged 38 cases, while Brampton and Edmonton also saw increases in similar incidents, frequently involving threats of arson or shootings if ‘protection’ money was not paid.
According to Canadian police sources, most of the cases have transnational links. Incidentally, the Bishnoi gang has been connected to some 50 violent incidents since 2023, with other ‘Punjabi gangs’ responsible for most of the current wave.
Some of the most recent killings for which the Bishnoi gang publicly claimed responsibility through social media posts include:
On June 20, 2025, an Indian-origin man, M.P. Dhanoa, was killed in a drive-by shooting at an automotive complex on Rutherford Road South in Brampton.
On June 11, 2025, a Punjabi-origin businessman, Satwinder Sharma, was shot dead inside his office on 84 Avenue in Surrey.
On May 15, 2025, Sikh businessman Harjeet Singh Dhadda was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in a parking lot in Mississauga.
Most recently, the Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for the August 7, 2025, shooting at comedian Kapil Sharma’s Cafe in Surrey, reportedly targeting him because of his association with actor Salman Khan.
Notably, on September 26, 2025, the Victoria Provincial Court sentenced Bishnoi gang member Abjeet Kingra to six years’ imprisonment, along with a lifetime firearms ban and a DNA collection order, for the arson and shooting incident at Indo-Canadian musician A.P. Dhillon’s residence on September 1, 2024, in southern Vancouver Island. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stated Kingra acted under the gang’s direction, while the second suspect, Vikram Sharma, remains at large, reportedly having fled the country.
As the violent activities of the Punjab-origin Bishnoi gang, which had forged links with other local organized crime groups in Canada such as the Brothers Keepers, peaked in 2025, the City of Surrey announced one of the largest rewards in Canadian policing history on September 15, 2025: a USD 250,000 reward for information leading to convictions in the rising extortion cases.
Lawrence Bishnoi, incarcerated in India since 2014 and currently detained in Sabarmati Central Jail, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, faces over 40 criminal charges, including murder and extortion, has built a reputation as a prominent gangster who orchestrates his operations from within prison. Despite being behind bars, Bishnoi is said to manage a vast criminal network estimated to include over 700 operatives across multiple Indian states. Bishnoi uses contraband mobile phones and encrypted communication channels to orchestrate his criminal network, managing the gang much like a corporate organization, reportedly with the help of ‘corrupted’ officials in India. His gang is involved in high-profile acts of violence, including targeted killings, intimidation of public figures, and systematic extortion across multiple states in India, and has extended its influence internationally, with a significant presence in Canada and other Western countries.
In India, the gang remains deeply entrenched in violence, extortion, arms and narcotics trafficking, and crimes targeting celebrities, politicians, and community leaders. The Bishnoi gang gained national notoriety through high-profile assassinations, including the murder of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022 and the killing of Maharashtra politician Baba Ziauddin Siddique in October 2024. Further, the gang has maintained a protracted feud with Bollywood actor Salman Khan, rooted in Khan’s 1998 conviction for illegally hunting and killing two blackbucks in Rajasthan – an act that profoundly offended the Bishnoi community, membership of which Lawrence Bishnoi claims [he is, by birth, a Jat Sikh, originally named Balkaran Brar].
This has prompted intensified crackdowns during which several self-proclaimed gang members have recently been killed or injured in Police encounters, in addition to numerous arrests. On October 2, 2025, the Maharashtra Police carried out a major operation against the Bishnoi gang and arrested 13 members after a brief encounter at a hideout in Amravati, Maharashtra. On September 17, 2025, two gang members, identified as Ravindra and Arun, accused of opening fire at Bollywood actor Disha Patani’s ancestral home in Bareilly on September 11, were killed in a police encounter in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Indian law enforcement has consistently engaged with Canadian counterparts concerning the Bishnoi gang’s expanding transnational network and its collaboration with Khalistani terrorist operatives, notably Pakistan-based Harwinder Singh Sandhu aka Rinda and Canada-based Lakhwinder Singh aka Landa. These alliances facilitate illicit activities such as drug trafficking, targeted assassinations, and arms and drug smuggling, particularly in Punjab and adjacent Indian states.
During Justin Trudeau’s tenure, the Canadian government largely disregarded Indian concerns about the Bishnoi gang – as well as a number of other prominent gangster-terrorist formations operating out of Canada – instead accusing New Delhi of using the gang and allied groups to target pro-Khalistan separatists in Canada. This reframed the issue as foreign interference rather than addressing it as a matter of transnational criminal-terrorist activity.
New Delhi has categorically dismissed the Trudeau administrations allegations as “baseless,” while reiterating its long-standing demand that Ottawa act upon several pending extradition requests for operatives associated with the Bishnoi network, including Lawrence Bishnoi’s close aide, Satinderjit Singh aka Goldy Brar. Unconfirmed reports, however, suggest internal divisions within the network, even as Brar is believed to maintain strong links with pro-Khalistan organizations such as Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) and to oversee aspects of the gang’s operations from Canada.
Although Goldy Brar was placed on Canada’s BOLO (Be On the Lookout) Program’s most-wanted list in May 2023, he was removed in April 2024. His initial inclusion had been publicly announced by the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi on May 2, 2023; however, his subsequent removal occurred without any official explanation.
Canada’s relatively permissive asylum and immigration policies have facilitated the entry and settlement of individuals with criminal backgrounds, contributing directly to the emergence of multiple Punjab-origin criminal networks, including but not limited to the Bishnoi gang. This situation has created significant challenges for law enforcement agencies and raised concerns regarding public safety within Canadian borders. Despite repeated representations and formal extradition requests from India, Ottawa has taken limited action against these individuals. According to an April 2023 list issued by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, nine of the 28 most wanted gangster–terrorist fugitives are currently operating from Canada. These include Sukhdool Singh aka Sukha Duneke, Gurpinder Singh aka Baba Dalla, Satveer Singh Warring aka Sam, Snover Dhillon, Lakhbir Singh aka Landa, Arshdeep Singh aka Arsh Dala, Charnjeet Singh aka Rinku Bihla, Ramandeep Singh aka Raman Judge, and Gagandeep Singh aka Gagna Hathur. Sukha Duneke was killed in an inter-gang shootout in Winnipeg on September 20, 2023.
Among these fugitives, Lakhbir Singh aka Landa, a key operative of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), and Arshdeep Singh aka Arsh Dala, who oversees the activities of the Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) in Canada, were formally designated as individual terrorists by the Government of India in 2023. While Lawrence Bishnoi continues to operate his criminal syndicate from within an Indian prison, both Landa and Arsh Dala are alleged to manage their networks in coordination with Khalistani terrorist groups, focusing on extortion, targeted assassinations, and arms smuggling operations spanning Canada and India.
Arsh Dala who is wanted in over 53 criminal cases in India – including charges of murder, attempted murder, extortion, and terrorist financing – was briefly arrested in October 2024 following a nightclub shootout in Halton, Ontario, on the night of October 27–28, during which he allegedly shot an accomplice. Despite India’s pending extradition request, he was released on bail within a month and subsequently permitted to remove his ankle tracker after posting a surety of 30,000 Canadian dollars. In India, Dala faces multiple prosecutions linked to targeted killings, extortion operations, and the provision of logistical and financial assistance to proscribed Khalistani organizations across Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan.
These cases underscore the persistent gap between the imperative for rigorous law enforcement and Canada’s selective application of justice, which appears to be influenced by domestic electoral considerations related to ethnic ‘vote banks’.
Amid efforts to revive bilateral engagements between India and Canada, particularly following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s assumption of office, Canada’s designation of the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity has been welcomed in New Delhi. On October 3, 2025, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), while noting the designation, emphasized that transnational organized crime remains a shared concern for both countries, and highlighted that both sides engaged in productive discussions aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism, transnational organized crime, and intelligence sharing.
Scepticism, however, persists. A recent Canadian government report acknowledged that pro-Khalistani extremist organizations, including BKI and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) – both already listed as terrorist entities by Canada – continue to receive financial support originating from within Canadian territory.
While the new designation equips Canadian authorities with enhanced measures to counter the gang’s activities – such as asset freezes and intensified legal actions against its transnational operations – its operational effectiveness will largely depend on Canada’s capacity for criminal intelligence gathering and sustained cooperation with Indian authorities, given that the gang’s primary base remains in India.
For India, the nexus between transnational crime syndicates and terrorist groups complicates law enforcement efforts, as strategies effective against conventional gangs may prove inadequate against networks with transnational and terrorist dimensions. Given that organized crime and terrorism increasingly operate in tandem – particularly in countries like India, where syndicates flourish with the support of various groups and extend their activities through diaspora networks – it is imperative that India and Canada act jointly against this transnational menace, since neither can be effective in isolation.
The Bishnoi designation highlights the need for a renewed bilateral framework in which security cooperation is insulated from political considerations and both countries recognize the converging threat posed by diaspora-based criminal-terrorist networks. More broadly, the Bishnoi case exemplifies a wider regional and global phenomenon: the integration of criminal and terrorist networks across borders, underscoring the necessity of coordinated, sustained, and intelligence-driven countermeasures.
