FBI Investigating Assassination Attempt on Sikh Organizer in California, a Close Associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar

The FBI is investigating a drive-by shooting, believed to be an assignation attempt on Satinder Pal Singh Raju, 44, a prominent Sikh organizer in California. Described in news reports as “a leader in the Khalistan movement,” Raju was a passenger in a vehicle that was shot at roughly 30 miles west of Sacramento, shortly before midnight on Aug. 11. He was a close associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (photo above), a Khalistan movement activist who was shot to death in June 2023 outside his gurdwara, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

Raju told Reuters that he and two of his friends were attacked on Interstate 505 South in Yolo County on their way back from a late dinner in Vacaville. One of his friends was driving the truck. He also confirmed that FBI agents came to speak with him on Aug. 22.

That killing, and “Trudeau’s suggestion of possible Indian government involvement, triggered a diplomatic crisis between the countries,” Reuters noted. In the same month as Nijjar’s killing, the FBI foiled an alleged assassination attempt against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and spokesman for Sikhs For Justice another prominent Sikh separatist with dual citizenship in Canada and the United States.

Raju, who lives in Woodland, worked as a trucker, according to the Los Angeles Times, and “took care of his wife and kids. He was “a regular at Gurdwara Sahib West Sacramento, the temple where he’s prayed since emigrating from India nearly 19 years ago,” the publication said. “In his free time, “he volunteered to travel Northern California and Canada to organize educational events and symbolic voting drives to establish a long-desired independent nation, Khalistan, that Sikh activists want to carve out of India’s Punjab region,” LA Times report added.

Earlier this year, thousands of Sikhs gathered in Sacramento on March 31, to vote on a ‘referendum’ on Sikh independence. The Sacramento Bee estimates that 40,000 people voted at the event. They came in cars, buses, and trains, waving bright yellow-and-blue flags to the State Capitol to participate in a non-binding ‘referendum’ to establish an independent nation in the region of Punjab. They waited patiently in long lines to cast their votes for Khalistan — an independent country of their own. The event was organized by Sikhs for Justice, an activist group that has been banned in India since 2019.

Instead of being scared, the shooting has “emboldened his activism,” Raju told the LA Times. “What more is there to but keep on going?” he said. “We can’t stop now. We can’t be scared.”

Pannu, who has been promoting Raju’s case, told the LA Times that “if a bullet and death is the price to pay for Khalistan, that is what we will face as Sikhs.”

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The concept of Khalistan dates back to the Partition of India in 1947, which caused extensive violence, displacement, and large-scale deaths. Following the Partition, the Punjabi Suba movement emerged which called for the establishment of a Punjabi-speaking autonomous Sikh state. In 1952, the then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared he would suppress the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state, leading to divisions between Sikhs and Hindus. Ultimately, in 1966, the state of Punjab was created with Chandigarh as its capital.

Encouragement for the Khalistan movement began to accumulate in the 1970s and early 80s, resulting in a wide, armed rebellion headed by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The rebellion lasted more than a decade and was suppressed by a violent crackdown by the Indian government, in which thousands of people were killed, including prominent Sikh leaders. In efforts to suppress the growing agitation and violence, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the invasion of the Golden Temple in 1984, to drive out Sikhs who had barricaded themselves inside. 

Known as Operation Blue Star, hundreds were killed, including Bhindranwale. In October of that year, Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. These two highly controversial and devastating incidents, triggered a huge series of anti-Sikh riots and Sikh retaliation, causing widespread ethno-religious violence. The following year, 329 people were killed by a bomb explosion on Air India Flight 182, revealed to have been planted by Canadian-Sikh terrorists.