Canada lists the Bishnoi gang under its anti-terror law

Who: Gary Anandasangaree, Canada's Minister of Public Safety; the Bishnoi gang, a crime network led by Lawrence Bishnoi, who has been in prison in India since 2015, with Goldy Brar thought to have taken over much of its activity; the RCMP; and the Government of India, which rejects the RCMP's allegations.

What: On 29 September 2025 Canada added the Bishnoi Gang to the Criminal Code list of "terrorist entities", saying it meets the Code's definition of a "terrorist group". The government described it as a transnational criminal organisation operating primarily out of India with a presence in Canada, linked to murder, shootings, arson and extortion that create a climate of insecurity in diaspora communities. The listing lets Canada freeze or seize the group's property, makes it an offence to knowingly deal with that property, and lets immigration officials weigh the listing in admissibility decisions. The government's statement does not say that India directs the gang.

Others had made that link. On 14 October 2024 RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme and Deputy Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin said they believed the group was connected to agents of the Government of India who target pro-Khalistani figures, and that about eight people had been charged over homicides and 22 over extortion. India strongly rejected this. In January 2026 Global News reported an undated RCMP national security assessment, obtained under access to information law, that describes the gang as "acting on behalf of the Indian government". The same document says it is driven by greed rather than politics or religion and grew from intimidation in Punjab student politics to about 700 members. The Indian High Commission did not respond to Global News.

Bishnoi's name was already known in Punjab. In June 2022 Delhi Police named him the mastermind of the killing of singer Sidhu Moosewala in Mansa on 29 May 2022, and said he told them his gang members, including Canada-based Goldy Brar, carried it out. India's NIA says Bishnoi ran an extortion syndicate with Brar.

Where: Ottawa, where the listing was announced; Canadian diaspora communities; and Punjab, where the gang began.

Why it mattered: The listing put a network that the RCMP links to agents of a foreign government into Canada's anti-terror law. In October 2024 the RCMP said its announcement was not specifically about the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which is a separate investigation, so the listing stands beside the Nijjar case, not on top of it.