Satinder Pal Singh Raju ‘sprayed with bullets’ on highway in another attack targeting Khalistan advocates
A Sikh separatist leader was attacked on a California highway earlier this month in a shooting that his organization has described as an assassination attempt.
Satinder Pal Singh Raju, an organizer with Sikhs for Justice and an advocate for the establishment of an independent Sikh state, Khalistan, was traveling on the Interstate 505 near Sacramento on 11 August when the truck he was in was “sprayed with bullets”. He survived the shooting.
Raju is an associate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian advocate for Khalistan who was assassinated in Vancouver in 2023, according to Sikhs for Justice. The Canadian government has said there were “credible allegations” that “agents of the Indian government” were behind Nijjar’s death.
California has long been home to a strong Sikh independence movement, and Raju has helped organize referendum efforts in the state to show support for Khalistan.
The California highway patrol confirmed to the Guardian that a shooting had occurred and that it unfolded after 11.30pm on 11 August in Yolo county. The agency is investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made, Rodney Fitzhugh, a CHP spokesperson, said in a statement.
Raju told the Sacramento Bee that he was returning from an organizing meeting with colleagues when a car pulled up next to them in a rural area of the highway and began firing, prompting the driver of the truck to veer into a ditch. They fled the vehicle and hid behind a haystack where they called 911, the newspaper reported.
Sikhs for Justice shared video on social media that showed bullet holes in the window of the driver’s side and in the windshield of the Dodge Ram.
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