WOODLAND — A Sikh leader in the Sacramento area says he was targeted in a highway shooting earlier in August and the California Highway Patrol are investigating the incident.
Satinder Pal Singh Raju, from Woodland, is a leader of the group Sikhs for Justice, and involved in the Khalistan movement which aims to create a homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region of India. Raju has been involved in referendum voting in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Calgary, Canada.
On August 11, Raju was in the passenger seat of a truck traveling south on Interstate 505 and headed toward Vacaville for a late-night dinner. As the truck approached the County Road 27 exit north of Witners, what appeared to be a white Honda Civic got close to the car’s bumper.
Within seconds, Raju said bullets blasted through the driver’s side window. The driver veered into a ditch off the road to escape and the men hid behind nearby hay bales.
“[At] that time, [I was] a little bit nervous, but not scared,” Raju said.
The men waited until CHP officers arrived at the scene, and I-505 was closed during the investigation. A CHP spokesperson told CBS13 that there are no suspects but that the incident was isolated and there is no threat to the public.
An FBI spokesperson told CBS13 they could not confirm if they are investigating.
Raju said this type of violence is something he’s seen play out for other Sikh leaders in their movement. One of his best friends, who was “like a brother” to him, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was assassinated in Canada last year.
“I realize it’s the same way they assassinated my friend, the same way they’re attacking me,” Raju said through an interpreter.
He said that even after the shooting, he is not scared but rather motivated to continue his work.
Barrage of gunfire targeted a Sikh leader near Sacramento. Was it an assassination attempt? BY JOE RUBIN UPDATED AUGUST 22, 2024 5:20 PM Bullet holes are seen in the driver side window of Satinder Pal Singh Raju vehicle following a shooting on Interstate 505 in rural Yolo County. The Woodland resident and Khalistan movement leader said he believes the incident may have been an act of transnational repression by India, which opposes the movement. Satinder Pal Singh Raju A prominent Sacramento-area Sikh leader’s pickup truck was fired upon on a highway near Winters in what his organization and an international expert believe was an assassination attempt. Satinder Pal Singh Raju, a Woodland resident and a leader in the Khalistan movement to establish a homeland for Sikhs, as well as two other Sikh activists were unharmed in the shooting, which happened about 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 11 along Interstate 505. Officer Rodney Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol’s Woodland office, said gunfire was reported on I-505 near County Road 27 in rural Yolo County, about 11 miles southwest of Woodland. According to a CHP log of the incident, Raju’s Dodge Ram 1500 was impounded as part of the investigation. After the publication of this story Wednesday, the FBI said it was aware of the incident. In a statement, the FBI said its Sacramento field office “continues to collaborate” with the CHP on the investigation. FBI officials did not say whether they believe the shooting was part of a growing domestic and international threat it has been tracking. The threats involve foreign governments and are known as “transnational repression,” in which overseas states target perceived enemies living abroad. But an intelligence expert and the group Sikhs for Justice believe that the shooting was unlikely to have been random They allege that India, which has been behind several plots against Sikh leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere, could be behind the troubling Northern California attack.