CHANDIGARH: The Lawrence Bishnoi gang used Canada's temporary immigration programmes to establish its criminal network. The gang was involved in extortion, shootings, murders and other organised crimes, according to a classified Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) report.
The gang exploited the country's student visa and work permit to carry out its criminal network, the CBSA classified intelligence report: “The Bishnoi Gang: An Emerging Threat in Canada ", said.
Canada’s Global News report based on the findings noted that investigations increasingly identify Indian nationals on study permits and work permits as participants in these organized criminal activities raising significant concerns for CBSA operations.
According to Global News report, Lawrence Bishnoi gang expanded its operations initially targeting Khalistan supporters and businessmen. However, since last year, this gang began extorting money from other Indian-origin communities too, as it recruited Indian youth who entered Canada on study visas and used them for extortion, shootings, murder, and other organised crimes.
The CBSA report was circulated in December 2025 to help Canadian immigration officers tackle the Bishnoi gang as it targeted South Asian communities. A copy of the report made public by the court recently stated that after the murder of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar in September 2023, the Bishnoi gang claimed responsibility for the murder of Sukhdul Singh Gill, alias Sukha Duneke, in June, same year.
While Nijjar was designated as an individual terrorist in July 2020 by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for heading the banned outfit Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), Gill was a member of the gang's rival Bambiha gang.
The report said the Bishnoi gang subsequently expanded its extortion operations across British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
As per the Global News findings, in many cases, the gang, after the attack, made videos and posted them on social media claiming responsibility to instil fear in people and force them to pay without resistance.
The report noted that in most cases, the threats were made in the name of Satinderjeet Singh alias Goldy Brar, a native of Muktsar in Punjab, who, in 2017, came to Canada on a student visa claiming to study at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia.
But government records do not clearly state whether Brar ever pursued education. In February 2019, he applied for refugee status in Canada. When his hearing was scheduled for June 14, 2022, he failed to appear.
Subsequently, Canada’s Refugee Protection Division declared Brar’s asylum application abandoned and closed it. The report added instead, he worked on building the Bishnoi gang's North American network.
Interestingly, the Canadian authorities had put Brar on their most-wanted list in May 2023 before quietly dropping him from it later that same year.
The report further said in 2024 the overall extortion rate of Canada dropped by 10 per cent, but the number of Indian nationals who were charged with extortion that year went up by 47 per cent. It claimed the number of crimes committed by Indian nationals soared by 8,800 per cent between 2016 and 2024, ranking India the “top source” country of foreign students charged with crimes.
“Between 2019 and 2023, 4,000 Indian citizens who entered Canada on study permits were charged with 17,929 offences. Of these, 4,920 were considered serious or organised crime-related and 97 per cent of those offences were deemed violent,’’ the report read.
The report mentioned in 2024, more than 13,040 criminal charges were laid against Indian students on study visas in Canada. It does not mention that the 2,418 who were charged represent just over a per cent of the 188,125 Indian students that year, but rather emphasises the upward trend.
In September last year, Canada had designated the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity and gave authorities and law enforcement agencies expanded powers to freeze assets, seize property and pursue related prosecutions.
These revelations come amid a broader recalibration of Canada’s international student programme, as Indian students have become by far the largest cohort in the country.
Indians accounted for the largest group of people deported from Canada. In the first six months of 2026, 3,323 Indian nationals, mainly on student visas, were deported from Canada, with 7,669 removals in progress in the inventory, the report said. As per data compiled by CBSA, this year, the deportation figure touched 88 per cent as compared to 2025. In 2020, Canada sent back 1,424 Indians.
