B.C. premier downplays RCMP report linking Indian government to Bishnoi gang

B.C.’s premier has downplayed concerns raised in an RCMP report about the Indian government’s suspected ties to a gang blamed for extortion and murder in Canada. During a t rade mission to India , David Eby responded to questions about an RCMP document that said the Bishnoi gang was “acting on behalf of the Indian government.” Asked about the newly-released report obtained by Global News , Eby said it was a “summary of publicly available news reports from more than a year ago.” “This was not an RCMP intelligence report,” he said from Mumbai on Wednesday. His office did not respond to follow-up questions from Global News. But a former intelligence analyst who reviewed the document disagreed with Eby’s characterization, and a Canadian Sikh organization called the premier’s statement “misleading and dangerous.” “The RCMP and senior Canadian officials have publicly stated that they possess evidence linking the Bishnoi gang to the government of India,” the World Sikh Organization of Canada said. “This isn’t based on a compilation of newspaper articles; it is a national security assessment. Dismissing it echoes Indian government talking points, trivializes transnational repression, and puts British Columbians at risk.” Eby has come under fire from Canadian Sikh groups and the Conservative opposition for embarking on an Indian trade mission amid police allegations linking the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to violence in Canada. Amid an extortion epidemic in B.C., Alberta and Ontario last June, Eby called on the federal government to list the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist organization. An RCMP report released to Global News on Monday that appeared to be a response to the premier’s plea repeatedly noted the Bishnoi gang’s suspected ties to India’s government. “The Bishnoi crime group is known to use violence to further their criminal enterprise, while allegedly acting on behalf of the Indian government,” the RCMP national security branch wrote. Get daily National news Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy . The premier said the “paragraph in question that was cited in the initial news report was a summary of publicly available news articles from the October 2024 period, allegations we were aware of.” But the quote in question was not sourced to a news report, and the document referred to Eby’s June 2025 call to list the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist group, meaning it was written at least eight months after October 2024. While the three-page report footnotes several news articles, it also sources a Public Safety Canada link that accuses Indian agents of collecting information “used to target members of the South Asian community.” Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service analyst Phil Gurski said it was common practice for intelligence reports to footnote news sources that are consistent with classified information. Reports used to place groups on Canada’s terrorist list, for example, “are written by CSIS and based on intel, but use open source that is consistent with the intel as the listing is public,” he said. The RCMP report was classified as Protected A, and several...

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