Surrey Sikh Community Confronts Bishnoi Charges, Censored Film, and Extortion Violence

Surrey's large South Asian community is navigating a convergence of high-stakes stories this week: U.S. authorities have charged Bishnoi gang members with ordering the assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a censored Punjabi film is drawing sold-out community screenings in defiance of India's ban, and the home of Cricket Canada president Arvinder Khosa has been struck by gunfire a second time in an extortion campaign targeting South Asian community leaders.

U.S. Charges Bishnoi Gang Members with Ordering Nijjar Assassination in Surrey

In a landmark development for Surrey's Sikh community, the United States Department of Justice announced charges against members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang for allegedly ordering the June 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar — the president of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, B.C. The indictments emerged from FBI Operation Hard Ball, a transnational law enforcement effort targeting criminal networks linked to Indian organized crime operating across North America.

Nijjar's killing on the grounds of his Surrey gurdwara sent shockwaves through Canada's Punjabi Sikh community and triggered a diplomatic rupture between Ottawa and New Delhi after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly alleged potential Indian government involvement. The U.S. charges provide a significant new evidentiary dimension to that ongoing saga, establishing alleged links between the Bishnoi gang — a criminal organization with deep roots in India's prison underworld — and the plot to kill Nijjar on Canadian soil.

U.S. court documents also reportedly link the Bishnoi network to the separate killing of a B.C. Sikh temple president, pointing to a pattern of targeted violence against South Asian community leaders in British Columbia. Arrests have been made in connection with the American indictment. The case carries major implications for both Canada's federal inquiry into foreign interference and parallel U.S. investigations into transnational organized crime networks that have repeatedly targeted Surrey's Sikh diaspora. [3]

Censored Satluj Film Draws Surrey Crowds After India Pulls It from Streaming

A film banned by India's government and pulled from a streaming service within 48 hours of its release is finding a defiant audience in Surrey, B.C., where community screenings of Satluj drew strong turnout from local Punjabi residents. The film stars acclaimed Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh as Jaswant Singh Khalra, a Sikh human rights activist who investigated and exposed extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of Sikhs during Punjab's turbulent insurgency in the 1980s and 1990s.

India's film censorship board blocked Satluj's theatrical release for approximately two to three years. When it was finally launched on a streaming platform, the Indian government ordered it removed within 48 hours, citing security concerns — a move that only intensified diaspora interest in the film. Gurpreet Singh, an independent journalist and author based in Delta, B.C., described the community screenings as acts of cultural defiance and memory-keeping.

For many in Surrey's Punjabi community, attending a screening carried personal weight, connecting them to relatives and ancestors who lived through the period the film depicts. Khalra himself was abducted and killed in 1995, a killing later attributed to Punjab Police by judicial inquiry. The suppression of Satluj in India has amplified its resonance among South Asian diaspora audiences in Canada, where the freedom to reckon with difficult histories carries particular meaning for a community still processing its own generational trauma. [2]

Cricket Canada President's Surrey Home Shot at in Second Extortion Attack

The South Newton neighbourhood home of Cricket Canada president Arvinder Khosa was struck by gunfire for the second time in under three weeks, according to the Surrey Police Service, in what investigators are treating as extortion-related violence. Officers responded to the shooting near 57 Avenue and 148 Street just after 4 a.m. on June 4, 2026, following an earlier attack on the same property on May 20.

Khosa leads Cricket Canada, the national governing body for a sport with deep and longstanding roots in the South Asian community. The repeated targeting of his home underscores the vulnerability of prominent South Asian community figures to extortion rackets that Surrey authorities say have increasingly set their sights on business owners and community leaders of Indian and Punjabi descent.

Surrey has experienced a sustained wave of extortion-related violence in recent years, with criminal networks demanding payments under threat of violence and following through on those threats when demands go unmet. Police have linked some of these networks to gangs with operational ties to South Asia. The Cricket Canada case remains under active investigation, with the Surrey Police Service urging anyone with information to come forward. Community advocates have renewed calls for dedicated anti-extortion resources and support programs tailored to Surrey's South Asian population, arguing that prominent community leaders should not face organized criminal threats without robust and targeted institutional protection. [5]

Ex-Mayor McCallum Demands Federal Probe into Indian Election Interference in Surrey

Former Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has publicly alleged that the Indian government interfered in local municipal elections and is calling on federal authorities to launch a formal investigation. His claims emerge at a moment of acute sensitivity in Canadian-Indian relations, following the 2023 assassination of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey and subsequent federal revelations about broader patterns of foreign interference in Canadian democratic processes.

McCallum contends that operatives linked to Indian intelligence worked to influence voting outcomes in a city where the South Asian community — predominantly Punjabi Sikh — represents a substantial share of the electorate and has long been a focal point for Khalistan advocacy in Canada. Surrey's demographics make it one of the most politically consequential South Asian communities in the country, and allegations of foreign interference there carry particular weight for diaspora political participation.

The claims add a local dimension to the broader national conversation about Indian interference in Canadian institutions, which has included Parliamentary testimony and a formal public inquiry. The Indian government has consistently denied allegations of interference in Canadian elections or domestic affairs. Community leaders across Surrey's South Asian organizations have called for transparency and due process, with advocacy groups noting that confirmed interference would constitute a direct assault on the democratic rights of hundreds of thousands of South Asian residents who have built lives and civic identities in the city. [1]

Sources: [3] Global News · [2] CBC · [5] CBC · [1] Surrey Now-Leader