The Bishnoi gang attempts a rebrand as community protectors

The Lawrence Bishnoi gang, declared a terrorist organization by the Canadian government in September, appears to be attempting to rebrand itself in Canada's South Asian community as a group of principled criminals who pursue the wicked while leaving ordinary hard-working citizens alone.

The gang has long used social media to claim or deny responsibility for shootings, threaten rivals, and issue various kinds of statements. It often posts videos of its violent exploits.

More recently, however, the gang seems keen to improve its public image.

The rebranding effort comes as South Asian communities, particularly in British Columbia and Ontario, continue to experience a wave of what appear to be extortion-related attacks.

Early on Thursday, a café belonging to well-known Indian comedian Kapil Sharma in Surrey, B.C., was attacked for the third time, with gunmen firing bullets through the windows while staff were working inside. None were injured.

Video claiming to show one of those shootings was also posted online. In it, a person can be seen firing a semi-automatic pistol from the window of a car into a glass-fronted building at night.

"This has the earmarks of extortion," Surrey Police spokesperson Ian MacDonald told CBC News, adding that their department and the Provincial Extortion Task Force are already investigating the previous shootings at Kap's Cafe.

Surrey police say there have been at least 64 extortion demands reported and 35 extortion-related shootings in the city this year, including one this week that saw a woman in her 20s shot while sleeping in her bed.

Police later said she was likely not the intended target. She was rushed to hospital in critical condition but survived.

The Bishnoi gang has been keen to tell the public that it's not involved in targeting innocent people, and that some of the attacks and extortion attempts being carried out under the Bishnoi name are being perpetrated by non-members seeking to use the gang's notoriety.

It's also said that it will target employers who abuse female employees, or who exploit temporary foreign workers and international students.

Overnight on Oct. 5, a Bishnoi gang member who goes by the name of Fateh Portugal claimed responsibility for three shootings in the Surrey area targeting properties owned by the Dhesi (aka Tesi) family, a prominent Indo-Canadian family that owns a trucking business and a radio station.

The gang posted video of the shootings. One showed a man in a black hooded jacket firing a bullpup-style military semi-automatic rifle at what appeared to be a building partly screened by trees.

Another video, shot from inside a car, appeared to show the same man on foot firing more than a dozen rapid shots from a rifle at a different location. The third video shows the entrance to Surrey's Swift 1200AM radio station. Several gunshots can be heard.

The shootings were followed by a Facebook post in which 'Fateh Portugal' listed three Surrey addresses that had been targeted.

"Sat Sri Akal, Ram-Ram to all brothers. I am Fateh Portugal. We are taking responsibility for those who are doing extortion and shootings in Canada in the name of Goldy Dhillon and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. These locations belong to Navi Tesi, and we have been carrying out shootings at these places for the past three days," the post read.

"We have no personal issue with Swift 1200 AM, but Navi Tesi extorted 5 million from singers in the name of Lawrence Bishnoi's gang, so we are targeting him."

In a statement given to local media, the family denied the Bishnois' claims.

“I, Kulwant Dhesi, on behalf of myself and my son Navi Dhesi, want to make it absolutely clear that neither I nor my son have ever taken even a single penny from any ordinary person or singer for LMIA [Labour Market Impact Assessment] or for extortion," it said. "These allegations are completely false.”

Jinny Sims, a former BC MLA who hosts a show on the targeted radio station, spoke to CBC News about the shootings and social media claims.

"I'm not sure if it's one entity behind it, or a number of entities, or copycats," Sims said, noting that the radio station was targeted just hours after Surrey police chief Norm Lipinski sat down in the studio for an interview about the wave of extortions in the community.

One bullet was stopped by the fourth wall it penetrated just before entering the same studio, Sims said.

She said whoever did the shooting was merely seeking to "deflect" by making allegations against the Dhesi family.

"I have known Navi Dhesi for a very long time. He's a businessman in our community," Sims said.

"He's a target. His businesses have been targeted. His home has been targeted. And to put out in a social media post absolute misinformation [designed] to mislead seems to me like blaming the victim."

Within 24 hours of the shootings targeting the Dhesi family, two Surrey restaurants belonging to a businessman of South Asian extraction were also struck by gunfire.

No one was working in either restaurant at the time. Another restaurant of the same chain had been targeted just a week earlier in Maple Ridge, B.C.

Goldy Dhillon, a Bishnoi associate who also claimed responsibility for the shooting at Kap's Cafe, posted that he had ordered the three restaurants targeted because the owner mistreated workers.

"Anyone who does such things will face the same consequences," Dhillon wrote.

CBC News spoke with someone at the restaurant chain who said the owner would call back, but did not hear from them by publication time.

Gurpreet Sahota, a well-known journalist in B.C.'s South Asian community, said the Bishnois appear to be motivated partly by a desire to scare off imitators and to keep intermediaries in line.

Those were the motivations cited in the attacks on the Dhesi family, he said.

"Basically what they are saying right now is that some middlemen are collecting money and the money is not reaching them," Sahota told CBC News.

"So basically let's say somebody's being extorted. Bishnois would ask for $1 million, and then a middleman would pop up and say 'OK, I know both parties, maybe I can arrange $500,000 or $200,000.' So the party gave $200,000 or $500,000 instead of $1,000,000 to them. The Bishnois are claiming that the money never reached them."

Sahota said Kulwant Dhesi, father of Navi Dhesi, had denied to him that his family had extorted money.

"He denounced all the things [Dhillon] said. [He said] 'No, it's totally wrong. We never collected a penny from anybody.'"

The justifications the Bishnois provide for some of their shootings fit a pattern of trying to improve the gang's public image, said Sahota.

They're saying, 'We are only looting those who looted the community.'- Gurpreet Sahota, journalist

"Bishnois are saying we are not targeting hard-working Canadian businessmen [and especially not] any non-Punjabi business. They're saying, 'We are only looting those who looted the community. So a Robin Hood kind of thing," he said.

"Basically they're saying [they're targeting] the people who cheated international students, used LMIAs to bring in poor people and abuse them, or the people who abused girls at their businesses. That kind of stuff."

The Bishnois' campaign to present themselves in a better light has succeeded in some quarters of the community, said Sahota.

"People are saying that nobody is asking money from us, and the only people have been asked are those who are somehow involved in wrong things. So this is also a division now. Lots of people are saying they don't care about it," he said.

"But at the same time, a few people are worried that these gangsters are after big fishes now — but later on, eventually they will come after the small people as well."

Various alleged Bishnoi associates have been charged or convicted of crimes in Canada, including the political assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. Last month Abjeet Kingra, who entered Canada on an international student visa, was convicted of shooting and arson at the Colwood, B.C., home of Punjabi music star AP Dhillon.

"People are shooting at people's businesses, people are shooting at people's homes where kids and grandkids live," said Sims. The shooting at Kap's Cafe was particularly brazen, since it was under police protection.

"The police had that place under heavy surveillance, and from what I'm told they were doing regular drive-by check-ins. And yet, somebody came and shot [it] and then posted the video."

Sims also said the Bishnois' attempt to rebrand as a protector of ordinary people was cynical.

"Blaming the victim is never good when you're the one with a rifle in your hand."