Canada Declares Bishnoi Gang a Terrorist Entity Amid Rising Tensions With India

OTTAWA — In a major escalation of Canada’s response to transnational organized crime and geopolitically motivated diaspora violence, the federal government today designated the India-based Bishnoi gang, led by Lawrence Bishnoi, as a terrorist entity under Canada’s Criminal Code. The listing bars Canadians from financing or aiding the group and allows authorities to seize property and freeze accounts.

Last year Canadian officials accused India of using the Bishnoi gang to carry out murders and acts of extortion targeting Canadians, particularly those who advocate for the creation of a separate Sikh country to be called Khalistan. New Delhi has rejected those claims, insisting it has been working with Ottawa to curb the gang’s financing flows into Canada. But the designation comes amid heightened tension between the two countries, following Canada’s accusations that Indian officials were involved in the 2023 assassination of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia.

“The Bishnoi Gang is a transnational criminal organization operating primarily out of India,” a government statement said today. “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.”

With the addition of this organization, there are now 88 terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code.

In British Columbia, Abbotsford, Surrey and the Province have all moved in tandem to confront a surge of extortion and violence hitting Indian diaspora communities — often linked in police files and public reporting to callers invoking the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Abbotsford Police stood up “Operation Community Shield,” Surrey launched a dedicated extortion unit, and B.C. formed a 40-member RCMP-led task force with CFSEU-BC among its partners. The Bureau has heard from a public safety official in British Columbia, not authorized for attribution, that with three police task forces now focused on the Bishnoi gang — including a combined RCMP unit and municipal forces in Surrey and Abbotsford — the case will be among the highest-priority law enforcement projects in Western Canada.

If sustained, the official added, the project is expected to have significant impacts on the gang’s operations, forcing its Canadian networks to fragment, move deeper underground, or reduce their presence in the country. There are already reports the Bishnoi network may have divided into factions, the official said.

In context, Indo-Canadian gangs are not the only networks operating with alleged foreign backing and involved in diaspora-linked threats, intimidation, and violence. U.S. government filings allege that British Columbia–based Hells Angels member Damion Patrick John Ryan was recruited by Iranian intelligence networks connected to drug trafficker Naji Sharifi Zindashti to help arrange assassinations of Iranian dissidents in the United States.The Bureau’s sources also indicate that Chinese organized crime networks are central to Beijing’s repression tactics in Canada’s diaspora communities.

For Sikh communities in British Columbia and Ontario, where reports of extortion and threats have circulated for years, today’s announcement will bring both relief and unease. Canada’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies now face the test of translating the new designation into meaningful disruption on the ground.