Sikh Activists See Signs of Assassination Attempt in Northern California Freeway Shooting

Updated 5 p.m. Thursday

A shooting this month on a rural Yolo County highway may have been an assassination attempt on a prominent California Sikh organizer, activists say. If true, it would be the latest in a string of attacks on Sikh political leaders on North American soil.

Satinder Pal Singh Raju, a leader in the Khalistan movement to establish an independent homeland for Sikhs in northern India, was a passenger in a vehicle that was shot at on Interstate 505 near County Road 27, roughly 30 miles west of Sacramento, shortly before midnight on Aug. 11. The California Highway Patrol and the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office responded to reports of the shooting.

In a text message sent through Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal counsel for the pro-Khalistan group Sikhs for Justice, who translated, Raju said he believes the shooting was an assassination attempt.

The United States, he said, “must hold [the] Modi Indian government accountable for assassinations attempts on Khalistan activists,” referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose party is backed by the country’s Hindu majority.

According to Pannun, Raju and two other activists were riding in a truck on their way to get food when a white car sped up behind their vehicle. The car moved into the left lane, returned to its initial position and then moved back into the left lane alongside the truck when someone in the car began shooting.

The driver lost control of the truck, which veered off the highway toward the exit. Raju and the other activists ran toward a field, where they hid behind a haystack.

Deputies responding to a report of shots being fired from one vehicle to another found several spent casings on the ground, and one person involved appeared to have a minor injury to his hand, Yolo County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Don Harmon told KQED in an email.

A photo provided by Pannun appears to show four bullet holes in the driver’s side window of a car. A video posted to the Sikhs for Justice Instagram account shows the same image.

The CHP’s Valley Division Investigative Services Unit is leading the probe. A spokesperson for the FBI’s Sacramento field office said it continues to collaborate with CHP in support of the investigation. No arrests have been made.

“Each and every circumstantial evidence leads to [the conclusion] that this is an assassination attempt,” Pannun told KQED in an interview. “But ultimately, it is for the investigating agencies to investigate and see who is behind this attempt on the life of Raju.”

Pannun noted that Raju was a close associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistan movement activist who was shot to death in Canada last year.

Canadian police arrested three men in May on suspicion of killing Nijjar. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement.

Activists have received threats since global non-binding referendum votes on whether to create the state of Khalistan in the Sikh-majority Punjab region began in the U.K. in 2021, Pannun said. Raju was a key organizer in the Khalistan referendum votes that took place in San Francisco and Sacramento this year.

Last year, U.S. authorities thwarted a murder-for-hire plot to kill Pannun. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Nikhil Gupta in November, alleging an Indian government employee recruited him to orchestrate the assassination attempt. Gupta has pleaded not guilty.

“If being dead is the price we have to pay to liberate Punjab from Indian occupation, we are ready,” Pannun said. “These assassination attempts and the death threats cannot and will not deter us from moving ahead with our global Khalistan referendum.”