From Prison Cell to Terrorist List: The Calculated Rise of the Bishnoi Gang and Its Canadian Reign of Fear 

Canada’s decision to designate the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist organization marks a significant escalation in its fight against a shadowy, transnational criminal syndicate masterminded by Lawrence Bishnoi from an Indian jail. The gang, which built a fearsome reputation through high-profile acts like the murder of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, has systematically targeted affluent members of Canada’s South Asian diaspora with extortion, using brazen violence like the shooting of singer AP Dhillon’s home to enforce its threats.

This terrorist listing, prompted by the gang’s decentralized, digital, and border-defying nature, grants police new powers to seize assets and reflects official concerns that its violence may be linked to political objectives, including alleged cooperation with Indian government elements to target Sikh activists abroad, thereby straining diplomatic ties with India while attempting to combat a uniquely modern security challenge.

From Prison Cell to Terrorist List: The Calculated Rise of the Bishnoi Gang and Its Canadian Reign of Fear 

The grainy cellphone video feels like a scene from a gritty crime thriller, but its terror was all too real for the residents of a quiet Victoria suburb. As two vehicles blazed in a driveway, a gunman calmly aimed his pistol at a home and fired 14 rounds into the darkness. This was not a random act of violence; it was a targeted attack on Punjabi-Canadian singer AP Dhillon in September 2024, a brazen message filmed and posted online by the assailants themselves. The arrest of Abjeet Kingra for the shooting was significant, but the true headline was the name he gave as his employer: the Bishnoi Gang. 

This single incident encapsulates the shadowy threat that has prompted the Canadian government to take an unprecedented step. In a move that signals a major shift in tackling transnational crime, Canada has officially designated the Bishnoi Gang—a criminal network orchestrated from an Indian jail—as a terrorist organization. This decision is not just about law and order; it’s a complex story of how a digitally-savvy, borderless syndicate exploited diaspora communities, inspired homegrown copycats, and forced a nation to redefine its security framework in the face of a new kind of threat. 

The Architect: From University Kingpin to International Crime Lord 

To understand the Bishnoi Gang’s reach, one must understand its leader, Lawrence Bishnoi. His story reads like a Bollywood anti-hero origin tale. The son of a police officer from a well-to-do family near the Pakistan border, Bishnoi seemed destined for a respectable career when he enrolled at Chandigarh’s Panjab University to study law. Instead, the campus became his training ground. 

Panjab University is known for its intensely competitive and sometimes violent student politics. Here, Bishnoi, an accomplished athlete, learned to wield intimidation as his primary tool. His notoriety crystallized in 2010 when he was charged with attempted murder, assault, and arson during a student council election—which he won. Imprisoned for his campus crimes, Bishnoi didn’t fade into obscurity; he professionalized his ambitions. 

From behind bars since 2014, he has built a network estimated at 700 members. Using encrypted messages on borrowed cellphones, he directs a sprawling operation dealing in Afghan heroin and systematic extortion. The gang cultivated a fearsome brand on social media, flaunting guns, releasing rap videos, and using platforms like Facebook to issue public threats. They operated not from shadowy backrooms, but in the glaring light of the digital world. 

The Turning Point: Murder, Extortion, and a Fearsome Brand 

The 2022 assassination of Sidhu Moose Wala, a globally famous Punjabi rapper who began his career in Brampton, Ontario, was a watershed moment. The daytime hit, claimed by Bishnoi’s top lieutenant Satwinder “Goldy Brar” Singh, sent shockwaves through India and the global Punjabi diaspora. It was a brutal demonstration of the gang’s reach and ruthlessness, a reputation they have since leveraged as a core business strategy. 

In Canada, with its large and often affluent South Asian communities, this reputation became a potent weapon. By 2023, police in Abbotsford, B.C., were revealing a disturbing trend: business owners were receiving threatening calls from individuals claiming to be Bishnoi gangsters. The demands were simple: pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or face violence. The enforcement was brutal: drive-by shootings of homes and businesses became a common tactic to prove they were not making empty threats. 

“They viewed Canada as a place where they can derive revenue and were able to operate with relative impunity,” said Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, highlighting the gang’s brazenness. “You’d see cars driving around with the Bishnoi label, where you’d have criminals openly and brazenly saying that they’re associated with Bishnoi.” 

The gang’s model is ruthlessly efficient. They often target victims with family still in India, making the threats feel omnipresent. The Peel Regional Police crackdown, which netted 48 arrests and $4 million in assets, revealed the scale of the problem. As Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich noted, the Bishnoi name was a constant refrain in these extortion calls. 

A New Kind of Enemy: Why a Terrorist Designation? 

The terrorist listing is a powerful tool, allowing Canadian authorities to seize property, vehicles, and money, and to more easily involve federal agencies like CSIS. But why label a criminal gang—whose primary motive appears to be profit—as a terrorist entity? 

The answer lies in the unique, amorphous nature of the threat. Unlike traditional gangs with clubhouses, colors, and clear hierarchies, the Bishnoi Gang is a phantom. 

“It’s very amorphous, it appears very decentralized – they don’t have a clubhouse, they don’t meet for ‘church night,’ they don’t wear Bishnoi gang hoodies,” explained Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton of the Surrey Police Service. This decentralization makes them incredibly difficult to infiltrate and dismantle using conventional policing. 

Furthermore, the line between genuine Bishnoi operatives and domestic copycats is intentionally blurred. Local criminals quickly learned that invoking the Bishnoi name in a WhatsApp message or phone call—often traced to overseas numbers—instilled instant fear, making their extortion attempts more effective. This creates a “franchise” model of terror, where the brand is as dangerous as the actual organization. 

The designation also hints at a political dimension that elevates the group beyond mere criminality. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified at the foreign interference inquiry that Indian diplomats collected intelligence on Canadian critics of the Modi government, which was then shared with “criminal organizations like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang to then result in violence against Canadians.” 

Sikh leaders in Canada have long alleged the gang acts as a proxy for the Indian government to target Khalistani activists abroad, a claim India vehemently denies. While Bishnoi has presented himself as a Hindu nationalist, the gang’s victims in Canada are predominantly Sikh, suggesting a potential alignment with political objectives that transcends simple profit. As Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, surmised, CSIS likely provided evidence that the violence “is, in one way or another, linked to political objectives,” thus meeting the threshold for a terrorist designation. 

The Geopolitical Fallout and a Continental Problem 

Canada’s decision places it in a delicate position with India. The Modi government has so far remained silent on the designation, even as it has previously criticized Canada for not acting on extradition requests for Bishnoi members. This move by the Carney administration is a bold one, attempting to curb a dire domestic threat while navigating a diplomatic relationship still fragile from previous tensions. 

The problem, however, is not confined to Canada. The gang has made inroads into the United States, where Lawrence Bishnoi’s brother, Anmol, was arrested in California last fall. His presence sparked fear within California’s sizable Sikh community, prompting State Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains to introduce legislation giving police more tools to combat transnational repression. 

Yet, the U.S. shows no sign of following Canada’s terrorist designation. Professor Leuprecht suggests this could be due to a different law enforcement assessment or, more pointedly, America’s strategically vital and different relationship with New Delhi. “It might also be that India got the message much more quickly,” he noted, implying that the message sent to India via Canada’s designation may have been received differently by the U.S. 

An Uncertain Future 

Canada’s terrorist listing of the Bishnoi Gang is a necessary and powerful escalation in a fight against a 21st-century criminal enterprise. It acknowledges that old tools are insufficient for a network that operates like a viral meme—decentralized, digitally propagated, and terrifyingly effective. 

However, as Prof. Leuprecht soberly notes, even with this new authority, rooting out the problem will be monumentally challenging. The genie is out of the bottle; the Bishnoi brand of fear has already been seeded in Canadian soil, inspiring a new generation of criminals. The real test will be whether this unprecedented designation can dismantle not just the gang’s assets, but the potent mythos it has so carefully cultivated from a prison cell thousands of miles away.