Till just lately, Satinder Pal Singh Raju was a largely unknown determine in Northern California’s massive and sprawling Sikh group.
From his residence within the small metropolis of Woodland, he labored as a trucker — a preferred job for Sikhs — took care of his spouse and youngsters and was an everyday at Gurdwara Sahib West Sacramento, the temple the place he’s prayed since emigrating from India practically 19 years in the past.
In his free time, he volunteered to journey Northern California and Canada to arrange academic occasions and symbolic voting drives to determine a long-desired unbiased nation, Khalistan, that Sikh activists wish to carve out of India’s Punjab area. India considers the decades-old international separatist motion to be a terrorist operation due to its territorial ambitions and violence dedicated by a few of its offshoots.
On Aug. 11, when Raju was making a late-night meals run with two pals, somebody fired at his pickup truck because it traveled down Interstate 505 in rural Yolo County. At the least 4 bullets struck his automobile, police stated. Raju and his pals — who’re additionally Sikh activists concerned within the separatist motion — weren’t injured, though their automotive veered off the highway, coming to relaxation close to a drainage ditch and a two-story stack of hay.
“They tried to kill me,” stated Raju, 44.
Within the final two weeks, information of the capturing has reverberated throughout Indian media and Punjabi-language radio reveals in North America as fears develop amongst California Sikhs about current threats in opposition to them due to their political exercise in opposition to the right-wing, nationalist Indian authorities. In current months, Sikh leaders at a number of temples throughout Northern California have reported nameless calls and textual content messages that threaten them in Hindi for pro-Khalistan actions.
There was debate within the Sikh group about whether or not the assault on Raju and his passengers could possibly be linked to broader transnational incidents in Canada and the U.S. wherein authorities have accused the Indian authorities of being tied to the deadly capturing of a Sikh activist in British Columbia and a plot to kill one other in New York.
India has denied all allegations.
Native regulation enforcement in Woodland and the California Freeway Patrol, which responded to the 911 name, haven’t commented on the motivation for the capturing and publicly launched details about it on Aug. 22, 10 days after the incident. In an announcement, the FBI stated it “continues to collaborate” with the CHP on an investigation and “takes all acts of violence critically.” The Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t reply to questions from The Instances.
Activists focused
The Sikh Coalition, a U.S.-based civil rights group, stated in an announcement that the Yolo County incident, whereas underneath investigation, “underscores the continued menace of Indian transnational repression.”
The activists focused within the Canada and New York instances had been concerned in a bunch known as Sikhs for Justice. The group promotes nonbinding referendum votes throughout the globe for the Sikh diaspora to precise assist for Khalistan, which implies “land of the pure” in Punjabi. Voting occasions this yr in Sacramento and San Francisco attracted tens of 1000’s of Sikhs.
In Might, Canadian police arrested three Indian nationals residing in Alberta in reference to a June, 18, 2023, capturing that killed Sikh chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar — a detailed good friend of Raju’s — as he stood exterior his temple.
The three suspects — in addition to a fourth alleged affiliate who was beforehand arrested — appeared in court docket this month on prices of first-degree homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide. The trial was delayed till October. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police — Canada’s nationwide police pressure — didn’t disclose the way it discovered the boys. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has stated Canadian intelligence companies had been trying into “credible allegations” of potential Indian authorities involvement.
India has stated that Canada has shared no proof to again its allegations of presidency involvement. It as a substitute accused Canada of giving “shelter” to extremists.
In November, the U.S. authorities alleged in a federal indictment that India paid a success man — an secret agent linked to the Drug Enforcement Company, it turned out — to kill a Sikh activist in New York who’s a lawyer and spokesman for Sikhs for Justice. Within the indictment, the U.S. accused an unnamed Indian official of working with a identified worldwide narcotics trafficker to rent the pretend hit man for $100,000. The trafficker was arrested within the Czech Republic and extradited in June to New York. He has pleaded not responsible in federal court docket forward of a September trial.
India has stated its investigation into U. S. prices discovered that “rogue” brokers of the Analysis and Evaluation Wing, India’s spy company, had been working with out authorities approval.
Sikhs vow to proceed
Activists brush off the denials and stated they continue to be unflinching of their dedication.
“They lie,” stated Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer and spokesman for Sikhs For Justice who has been selling Raju’s case. Pannun is the New York resident that the U.S. authorities stated India tried to kill.
“If a bullet and demise is the worth to pay for Khalistan, that’s what we are going to face as Sikhs,” stated Pannun, who produces YouTube reveals from his Astoria, Queens, workplace the place he rails in opposition to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He’s now turned his consideration towards Raju, who has turn into considerably of a hero within the tight-knit group of Sikhs who manage for Khalistan.
For Raju, the capturing has emboldened his activism.
“What extra is there to however carry on going?” he stated. “We will’t cease now. We will’t be scared.”
Not all of of his co-activists agree with Raju’s allegations of a potential Indian plot in opposition to him.
“We don’t actually know what occurred. It could possibly be one thing else,” stated Bobby Singh, a 24-year-old Khalistan organizer in Sacramento who stated he is aware of Raju from native pro-Khalistan rallies. “Nonetheless, we demand a full investigation.”
A long time-long strife
Sikhs quantity about 500,000 within the U.S., the third-largest inhabitants exterior of India after the UK and Canada. About half of U.S. Sikhs dwell in California, the place their presence within the Bay Space, Stockton and Sacramento goes again to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Whereas probably the most ardent activists for Khalistan, corresponding to Raju, make up a small group, assist for the motion is widespread amongst Sikhs in the USA. Posters and prayers at temples frequently cite the envisioned Sikh nation.
Many, like Raju, level to fashionable Indian historical past as the explanation why.
Now 44, he was a younger boy rising up within the Punjabi metropolis of Jalandhar throughout a peak of strife between Sikhs and the Indian authorities.
In 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered a siege on separatists occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest web site in Sikhism. In response, her two Sikh guards assassinated her. Mobs went rampage round Delhi, killing Sikhs, usually with authorities approval. Some estimates put the deaths within the tens of 1000’s. In one other incident a yr later that was tied to the violence, militants blew up an Air India flight over the Atlantic, killing 329 folks.
Raju has family and friends again residence who noticed the violence of that period, he stated, and is aware of folks in India who confronted lingering discrimination in opposition to Sikhs over the a long time.
That — and the chance to work and dwell in America — introduced him California when he was 25. Raju moved in with household in Woodland and acquired a job in trucking. He briefly stop to run a Punjabi grocery retailer earlier than returning to vans a decade in the past. For a lot of his working life, Raju has been on Interstate 5, hauling dry items from California to Oregon and Washington state.
Rising activism
“I used to be not very political,” he stated. That was till 2016, when pals from the West Sacramento temple recruited him to volunteer for Sikhs for Justice. The rising group had ambitions to launch voting drives for Khalistan throughout Sikh inhabitants facilities from London to Australia.
Raju can be in command of educating Sikhs in regards to the course of — a solution to present international Sikh assist for the nation they search to determine — and serving to with voting facilities in California and Canada. In WhatsApp teams and in-person gatherings, he acquired to fulfill Sikh activists who crisscrossed the globe in assist of the trigger.
It was a part-time pastime till final yr. That’s when his good friend, Nijjar, was shot lifeless forward of that area’s vote.
“I used to be mourning,” Raju stated. He took time away from trucking to spend three months in Surrey, Canada, a suburb of Vancouver, to arrange the voting referendum. When Sikhs got here collectively in San Francisco in January for a Khalistan vote, Raju was there. He joined in Sacramento, too, when a vote occurred in April. Raju was in Calgary, Canada, till voting there concluded final month.
In contrast to some higher-profile activists, Raju by no means acquired threats. However he suspects that his rising visibility by his travels, together with pictures the place he posed with Nijjar, put him on the radar of these against his work.
The evening of the capturing
Throughout the day on Aug. 11, he stated, he was at residence in Woodland with two pals from the Khalistan motion who’re much less concerned than him and requested to not be recognized out of worry for his or her security. Raju had spent the day enjoying together with his younger kids earlier than speaking late into the evening together with his associates.
Hungry, they acquired on the highway to drive south on I-505 for Vacaville, the place BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse was open till midnight, Raju stated.
His good friend was driving Raju’s Dodge Ram 1500. Raju was within the passenger seat and the opposite good friend was within the again. About 11:30 p.m. they observed a automotive, probably a white Honda Civic, following them intently, Raju stated.
The Honda pulled to the passenger aspect of the truck, Raju stated, and somebody — he didn’t see who it was — started capturing. The three pals ducked and the automotive rolled right into a ditch. Raju stated they acquired out and briefly hid behind bales of hay, nonetheless seen Thursday afternoon.
“I’m grateful I survived,” stated Raju. “Our faith is certainly one of peace. However we additionally should combat for our rights. So we are going to carry on going.”
Kaleem reported from Los Angeles and Garrison from Woodland. Employees author Richard Winton contributed reporting.
