Murder, arson and drive-by shootings

Compelling evidence suggests that the Hindu nationalist government of Narendra Modiworking in league with gang leaders is targeting enemies far beyond India’s borders

- Leyland Cecco TORONTO

On one summer night in Ontario, a Canadian Sikh activist received a panicked call from his wife: police had come to their home and warned her that his life was at risk.

Two weeks later and thousands of kilometres away, a gunman in the province of British Columbia filmed himself firing a volley of bullets into the home of a prominent Indo-Canadian singer as two vehicles burned in the driveway.

Both instances - together with a string of arson attacks, extortion schemes, drive-by shootings and at least two murders - are now believed to be part of a wide-ranging and violent campaign of intimidation across Canada orchestrated by India's government.

Last September, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested there were "credible allegations potentially linking" Indian officials with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and Sikh activist, who was shot dead in British Columbia.

Until recently, the scope and depth of those allegations were not clear. Earlier this month, however, Canadian police made the explosive accusation that Indian diplomats had worked with a criminal network led by a notorious imprisoned gangster to target Sikh dissidents in the country.

India rejected the allegations as "strange" and "ludicrous".

But Canadian officials point to a string of cases over the past few years they suspect are part of a broader, India-sanctioned campaign to intimidate, coerce and kill.

In September 2023, only two days after Trudeau's initial suggestion of a link to the Indian government, a fugitive Indian gangster called Sukhdool Singh Gill was killed in a hail of gunfire in a Winnipeg home.

Gill, a member of the Bambiha gang, was wanted in India on charges of extortion, attempted murder and murder. But Indian officials said he was also linked to the separatist Khalistan movement, which aspires to establish a Sikh homeland in Punjab.