Murders of Malik, Moose Wala put spotlight back on Punjabi gangs in Canada

The murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala in May followed by the killing of Ripudaman Singh Malik, a 75-year-old Sikh man acquitted in the tragic 1985 Air India Kanishka terrorist bombing case, brought the spotlight back on Punjabi gangs active in Canada.

With Goldy Brar, a gangster who travelled to the country on a student visa in 2017, claiming responsibility for the killing of Moose Wala, Indo-Canadian gangs are once again under the scanner. Brar is a close aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, who is the chief suspect in the singer’s murder.

It is on record that Gurpatwant Pannun, founder of the banned Sikh for Justice (SFJ), openly assured legal protection to the killers of Moose Wala and still no action has been initiated against either Brar or Pannun. In Malik’s murder case, Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, have been charged with first-degree homicide. Malik was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia on June 15.

Punjabi youths have earned distinction in topping the list of criminals and gangsters, a report suggests. The police in Canada have issued a public warning identifying 11 men, of whom nine are of Punjab origin, linked to extreme levels of gang violence. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit of British Columbia (CFSEU-BC) along with Vancouver Police and BC Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued the public warning. Punjabi-Canadian criminal gangs are formed in a community based in Canada and are primarily made up of young individuals of Punjabi ethnic origin.

According to another report, seven notorious gangsters, five of them listed in the ‘A’ category, are wanted by the Punjab Police in cases of murder, loot, extortion and kidnapping, but they have been hiding “conveniently” in Canada for years.

The fact that these hardcore gangsters have been working in cahoots with radical organisations, which are carrying out terror operations and killings in Punjab besides making extortion calls, makes things more complicated and difficult for the law-enforcement agencies in India as getting them extradited to India to face legal action is the most tedious task.

Little support from Canada, UK and other western countries

India’s efforts to seek their deportation to India despite furnishing tangible proof to the Canadian authorities have barely borne any fruit.

Canada, the UK and other western countries give two hoots to India’s demand to return to India the criminals responsible for carrying out terror activities in India with the standard excuse of “lack of sufficient proof”. It took India close to two decades to have two persons, a woman and her brother, of Punjab origin extradited from Canada for “(dis)honour killing” of a girl.

The Canadian government has failed to carry out a proper investigation and trial into the first worst bombing in aviation history when Air India’s Kanishka bombing took place in 1985, killing 329 people mid-air.

Canada’s reluctance to take action against Khalistanis is seen as a ‘vote-bank politics’, given a huge ‘election funding’ by Sikhs.

It has been pointed out that terror organisations such as Sikhs for Justice, Gurpatwant Pannun and Hardeep Singh Nijjer have been allegedly executing anti-India activities with impunity from Canada with no perceivable action.

There has been alleged misuse of religious platforms to promote anti-India activities in western countries including Canada. Control by Khalistani-gangsters nexus of Dashmesh Darbar Gurdwara in Surrey, Guru Nanak Sikh Temple in Surrey and Dixie Gurdwara in Brampton are some of the evidence.

Ripudaman Malik’s killing

Recently, the police claimed the involvement of gangster-turned-terrorist Arsh Dalla among others in the broad daylight killing of Ripudaman Malik. Though the authorities arrested the killers, they refused to share the links, motive and details of the masterminds of the killing.

The Canadian authorities have also, so far, failed to take cognisance of the fact that Malik was being hackled, trolled, threatened and abused by Hardeep Nijjer, a henchman of Pannun, and Moninder Boyle, another hardliner Khalistani who till recently was in control of Dashmesh Darbar Gurdwara in Surrey.

The authorities have also not yet initiated any action against other suspects in Malik’s murder, namely Gurvinder Singh Dhaliwal, a close aide of Nijjer, Gurpreet Singh Sahota, a TV host at Channel Punjabi which is owned by hardcore Khalistani Pary Dullay, Ranjit Singh Khalsa aka Kala, in charge of a Khalistani gurdwara at Abbotsford.

The name of journalist Gurpreet Singh, husband of NDP MLA from British Columbia Rachna Singh, also figures as a provocateur against Malik. Moninder Boyle had written a threatening letter to Sri Akal Takht Jathedar Harpreet Singh leading to the cancellation of the latter’s visit to Malik in Vancouver.

Killers of kabaddi player Sandeep Singh continue to live in Brampton unfettered.

Following Malik’s killing, multiple incidents of a deadly gang war between Punjabis have taken place in the British Columbia area that goes to show the failure of authorities to control and name kingpins.

A prominent Sikh preacher, Baljit Singh Daduwal who is also the president of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC), has called out the terror outfit ‘Sikhs for Justice’ for misguiding Sikh youths, especially baptised ones, against India.

Daduwal has appealed to the Sikh youths to stay away from dollar dreams shown by a secessionist organisation in the name of Khalistan. Daduwal said many Sikh families were suffering because their children were getting lured by payment of a few hundred to thousand dollars and promise of a job made by a US-based secessionist organisation in exchange for hosting Khalistan flags or painting its slogans.

He said, “it is tragic that Sikh, mainly Amritdhari youths, have got swayed by these promises and end up in jail. They are not even getting bail. Many youths have been in jail for over two years. Many recently approached me for relief. The organisation that got this unlawful work done didn’t even pay them.”

ISI activities in Canada

It is also an open secret that Pakistan’s ISI has its presence in entire Canada in large numbers. The spy agency is known for working in close coordination with anti-India and Khalistani elements by providing them with all sorts of aid and advice.

It is a well-known fact that Canadian authorities have never questioned the disruptive and objectionable activities of the ISI being carried out from Canada.