Canadian police accuse the gang of killing several Sikhs in Canada on behalf of the Indian government. The gang recently made headlines again in India.
Lawrence Bishnoi on his way to court in Delhi in April 2023.
Ani / Handout
It was just a side note in the dispute between Delhi and Ottawa over the murder of several Sikh separatists in Canada. But it was a remark that made the Indian press sit up and take notice: According to the Canadian police, Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang was behind the murder of the separatists. Indian intelligence used the gang to assassinate supporters of the Khalistan movement, which was fighting for a separate Sikh state in northern India, Canadian police said last week.
The gang is said to have been particularly involved in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The 44-year-old advocate of an independent Sikh state in Punjab was shot dead near Vancouver in June 2023. Canada’s Prime Minister Justice Trudeau then accused Indian agents of ordering the crime. This triggered a diplomatic crisis that led to the mutual expulsion of ambassadors last week.
The scandal is now putting a criminal gang in the international spotlight that was previously hardly known to anyone outside of India. However, Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang is not unknown in India. Just a week ago, she made headlines in Mumbai with the murder of well-known politician Baba Siddique. Since then, there has been intensive discussion in India about the background.
Bishnoi built his gang while still at university
Was founded the gang, according to Indian media, in 2008 by Lawrence Bishnoi. The now 31-year-old is the son of a police officer from Punjab. He was born Balkaran Brar, but took the name Lawrence Bishnoi while at school. While studying law at the University of Chandigarh, he became involved in a local student organization, but also began to build his own gang. That was the first time he was arrested for shooting at a rival student leader.
The gang attracted attention early on with protection rackets and turf wars. Over the years she is said to have murdered 30 members of rival gangs. The murder caused a particular stir to the dazzling rap star Sidhu Moosewala in June 2022. The 28-year-old became known in Punjab with political songs. He may have been murdered by the Bishnoi gang because he had links with a rival gang.
Behind the murder is supposed to be Bishnoi’s right-hand man, Goldy Brar, confessed. Like Bishnoi, Goldy is also the son of a police officer from Punjab. Their connection dates back to their student days in Chandigarh. Goldy later went to Canada to study. Today he is on the list of the most wanted criminals there, and he is also wanted in India. He is said to live in the USA.
Bishnoi continues to pull the strings from prison
At the time of the murder of rap singer Moosewala in 2022, Lawrence Bishnoi had already been in prison for eight years. But even in prison he is said to have his gang firmly under control. He was transferred to other prisons several times because he pulled the strings from his cell. He even managed to give an interview to a television channel in which he portrayed himself as an Indian patriot and tried to give his criminal activities a political flavor.
Today the gang According to the Indian anti-terrorism agency NIA, 700 members and is also active in Canada and the USA. The NIA accuses Bishnoi of having established links with the Khalistan movement to obtain weapons. This has been fighting violently for the secession of a Sikh state in Punjab since the 1980s. Today her fight finds little support in India, but she still has some support from the Sikhs in the diaspora.
However, it is unclear how exactly Bishnoi feels about the movement. He portrays himself as their opponent. Whether his gang actually murdered Nijjar and other supporters of the movement on behalf of the Indian government is controversial. India complains that Canada has not yet provided any evidence of this and that Indian agents ordered Nijjar’s murder. According to the Indian account, it was more of a settlement in the criminal environment.
An opaque web of politics and crime
At least parts of the Khalistan movement are said to have connections to organized crime. This is how the Sikh separatist Sukhdool Singh Gill becamewho was murdered in Canada a few months after Nijjar, wanted in India for extortion and murder. According to India’s anti-terrorism agency (NIA), part of the proceeds from his criminal activities went to finance the Khalistan movement. In 2017, Gill fled to Canada. He was murdered in Winnipeg in September 2023. The Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for the murder.
The gang may also have been involved in the murder plot against Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the summer of 2023. The plot has been causing tensions with the USA for a year. Here, too, there is suspicion that the murder was ordered by the Indian secret service. The mastermind is said to have been former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav. He became named as a suspect by the USA on Friday.
As has now become knownYadav was arrested on extortion charges in Delhi last December. A businessman had filed a complaint alleging that Yadav had kidnapped and blackmailed him. The man said Yadav told him that Bishnoi would kill him if he did not pay. So, did Yadav belong to the Bishnoi gang? And was he actually acting as an agent of the Indian government when he ordered Pannun’s murder? Much is still unclear.
All in revenge for the death of two antelopes?
There is also heavy speculation in the Indian media as to why the Bishnoi gang murdered Mumbai politician Baba Siddique. The 66-year-old was gunned down in front of his son’s house in Mumbai’s fashionable Bandra district on the evening of October 12th. The former minister and MP was known in Mumbai for partying with Bollywood stars and was particularly close friends with actor Salman Khan.
Indian media are now speculating that this friendship has become his undoing. Because Lawrence Bishnoi has had a bitter enmity with Salman Khan for years. As early as 2018, he is said to have commissioned one of his cronies from prison to murder the Bollywood star. In November 2023 and again in April this year, members of the Bishnoi gang allegedly fired shots at the actor’s home in Mumbai.
The reason for the bizarre hostility is said to be the killing of two antelopes. In 1998, while filming in the desert in Rajasthan, Salman Khan shot several gazelles and two rare blackbucks during an illegal hunting trip. The animals with long, twisted horns and distinctive black and white coloring were once widespread on the subcontinent, but are now protected in India. Salman Khan was accordingly charged with poaching and sentenced to a suspended sentence of several years.
The motive for the murder may also be more prosaic
Above all, the killing of the antelopes earned Khan the ongoing enmity of Lawrence Bishnoi. As his name suggests, he hails from the Bishnoi religious group in Rajasthan. These are known for their commitment to protecting wildlife and trees. The Bishnoi consider the antelopes to be sacredas they are considered to be an incarnation of their guru Jambheshwar. The Bishnoi women are even supposed to raise motherless young animals with their own milk.
Whether Bishnoi’s gang actually wanted to take revenge for the killing of the antelopes by murdering Siddique is controversial. According to Indian media, the explanation could also be much more prosaic. Accordingly, the politician was actually killed by the Bishnoi gang over a dispute over a slum development project in Mumbai. This wouldn’t be surprising: the financial metropolis is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and criminal gangs have been active in the real estate sector since the 1990s.
