Sikh separatist leader attacked by gunfire on California interstate

Gunmen fired at a truck transporting a Sikh leader near Sacramento.

The incident is one of several targeting Sikh separatists in North America in recent months.

Satinder Pal Singh Raju, an active organizer in the Khalistan movement, which calls for Sikhs to have a country of their own, survived the attack on Interstate 505 about 30 miles west of Sacramento in unincorporated Yolo County. The California Highway Patrol was notified of the incident at 11:37 p.m. on Aug. 11, CHP spokesperson Rodney Fitzhugh said.

Video posted on social media by Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, lawyer and spokesperson for Sikhs for Justice, shows four bullet holes in the driver’s window of Raju’s car, with two additional dents on the front window near the passenger’s side.

Bullet holes from an attack on Satinder Pal Singh Raju, an active organizer in the Khalistan movement, while he was traveling on Interstate 505 about 30 miles west of Sacramento.

(Gurpatwant Singh Pannun)

His organization believes it to be an assassination attempt. Authorities have made no arrests and have not announced a motive.

Pannun was the target of a foiled assassination attempt in the U.S. in 2023. He has been charged with terrorism in India for advocating for an independent Sikh state and clashed with the ruling government of Narendra Modi.

“Modi 3.0 Regime is continuing with its policy of transnational repression to violently suppress the global Khalistan Referendum campaign seeking liberation of Punjab from Indian occupation,” Pannun said in a statement on Aug. 19. “India’s unabated transnational violence cannot stop the voting process started by the Referendum campaigners.”

“This is one more example of India’s aggression,” Pannun added in an interview with The Times. “But this is the life given to us as part of this group.”

Pannun said Raju and the Sikhs for Justice team had organized an event in Calgary in late July as well as others in San Francisco and Sacramento earlier this year.