India's notorious criminal syndicate Bishnoi Gang has been declared a "terrorist entity" by the Canadian government, penalising the group who committed a high-profile murder on its soil on the behest of the Indian government.

 

Canada has long maintained that India got Canadian national Harjeet Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist, murdered in Vancouver in 2023. The grisly shooting in a parking lot led the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to allege that the Narendra Modi-led Indian government had conspired with Bishnoi Gang to target or attempt to assassinate many Sikh separatists in the country. 

 

India rejected the allegations, leading to a prolonged diplomatic impasse which saw Ottawa expelling Indian diplomats and India replying in kind. 

 

The Canadian Minister for Public Safety, Gary Anandasagree, has stated that the terrorist designation gives the state "more powerful and effective tools" to target the gang. 

 

His office said in a statement that the Bishnoi Gang was a transnational organisation that spreads terror through extortion and intimidation and works primarily out of India.