Canadian police have issued formal "duty to warn" notices to Sikh activists in British Columbia and Ontario, alerting them to credible, serious and imminent threats against their lives, CP24 reported on August 18. Among those warned are Inderjeet Singh Gosal of Caledon, Ontario, and Manjinder Singh of Abbotsford, B.C., both organisers involved in non-binding referendums on Khalistan, an independent Sikh homeland; a third organiser in B.C. received a verbal warning from police.
The warnings follow the June 2023 killing of referendum organiser Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, a case Canadian authorities have linked to India-based organised crime networks, with jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi charged with ordering the murder. In July 2026, US authorities arrested 24 suspects worldwide in connection with the broader network of crimes, underscoring how far the fallout from Nijjar's death continues to reach. Gosal, who coordinates the referendum campaign in Canada, said he would continue the work regardless of personal risk: "I will continue to do exactly what Hardeep Singh Nijjar did. And if the bullet is the ending for me, I'm glad to take that bullet. But nothing will stop me from this campaign." He declined witness protection but asked police for more detail on the nature of the threats. The next referendum vote is scheduled for Edmonton in October 2026.
The episode is a stark reminder of how directly events in the Canadian diaspora continue to reverberate back to Punjab, where families in Jagraon and across the state maintain close ties with relatives abroad. For the global Sangat, the safety of Sikh community organisers overseas — whatever one's view of the referendum campaign itself — remains a matter followed with concern by Sikhs on both sides of the ocean.
