Chandigarh: The Akhil Bhartiya Bishnoi Mahasabha, a national-level outfit of the Bishnoi community, has written to the Canadian High Commissioner to India urging action after an Uber driver of Indian origin was assaulted in Vancouver by a group of men claiming he belonged to the “Bishnoi gang”.
The 19 October letter—which ThePrint has seen—comes at a time when jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is back in the headlines after three shooters fired at Tiger Shroff’s car in Mumbai, with the actor making a narrow escape. Shortly after, a text post appeared on social media claiming responsibility for the shooting in the name of Lawrence Bishnoi.
According to the Akhil Bhartiya Bishnoi Mahasabha’s letter to Canadian High Commissioner Christopher Cooter, the incident took place some time in September. Ankush Bishnoi was ferrying a passenger in his Uber taxi in Vancouver when some men signalled him to stop. He and his passenger disembarked, after which the men pointed at his personalised car number plate that read ‘BIS9E’. One of the men called Ankush a member of the “Bishnoi gang” and began to verbally abuse him.
Ankush, the letter further said, calmly told them that one gangster does not represent the entire Bishnoi community, and that he had no links with any gang. The man however punched him, leaving him with a bloodied face. A passerby filmed the incident.
Ankush, who originally belongs to Haryana, told RED FM Report, a Punjabi media platform in Canada, that he had got the number plate made in 2023, when hardly anyone in Canada had heard of Lawrence Bishnoi.
“I have no connection to Lawrence Bishnoi, yet I’m being targeted because of my surname,” he told Red FM Report in an interview. He further said it was not just him, but several other men and women in Canada who were being targeted because their surname is Bishnoi.
After the attack, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) contacted him and suggested that he change his car number plate, Ankush told RED FM Report.
The Akhil Bhartiya Bishnoi Mahasabha’s letter has called on the Canadian government to act on the attack and on what it calls growing prejudice against the peaceful Bishnoi community in Canada.
Mahasabha president Devender Budhiya told ThePrint: “We have asked that the attack on Ankush be investigated thoroughly and fairly, and that it be looked at as a crime driven by hate.”
The Mahasabha has made three other demands. It wants Canadian authorities to publicly state that criminal gangs and the law-abiding Bishnoi community are different. It wants media and agencies to name gangs after their alleged leaders and not after a community or surname. It further wants Canada to appoint a liaison officer for the Bishnoi community, so that threats and attacks can be reported.
Why the Bishnoi name hit headlines in Canada
The Lawrence Bishnoi gang hit the headlines in Canada in connection with the June 2023 high-profile killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.
In September 2023, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had told the House of Commons that Canadian agencies were pursuing credible allegations linking agents of the Indian government to the killing, an allegation New Delhi firmly rejected. In October 2024, Royal Canada Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin named the Bishnoi group in connection with the killing, at a news conference.
In 2025, Canada listed the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist entity.
In July this year, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Lawrence Bishnoi—who is currently lodged in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad—and his aide Goldy Brar with Nijjar’s killing, ruling out the role of Indian government officials. The same month, the RCMP indicated that authorities found no evidence linking Indian government officials to the killing of Nijjar.
The Akhil Bhartiya Bishnoi Mahasabha letter said the Bishnois are a peaceful, nature-loving community of lakhs of people, founded more than 500 years ago on 29 principles of non-violence and compassion for all living beings. It further mentioned that in 1730, when 363 men, women and children gave their lives in Khejarli village of Rajasthan to save khejri trees from being felled. “Bishnoi” is a faith and a way of life, the letter said, not the name of a criminal organisation.
“The Akhil Bharatiya Bishnoi Mahasabha is strictly against every kind of crime, extortion and violence,” Budhiya said. “Our demand is only this: innocent people should not have to pay for the crimes of others because of their surname.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)