20 Encounters in 7 Months During Recover Ops; Kapil Sharma’s Canadian Cafe Attacked

After Sanjay Verma's killing in Abohar, Panjab minister and Aam Aadmi Party state chief Aman Arora posted on X, 'In New Punjab, criminals have two choices: surrender or face the law....No mercy for those who dare to disrupt peace.' This 'new Punjab', however, is over a year and a half old, as the state has been witnessing such police encounters since December 2023—a month that saw seven such incidents. The trend continued throughout 2024, with murder suspect Gursharan Singh and gangster Karanjit Singh alias Jassa Happowal killed. Social activist Harmilap Singh Grewal questioned the glorification, 'Such encounters are no deterrence to crime in the state. Big conspirators are sitting in jail. Police kill the shooters, and gangsters in jails nurture new ones. There is no signal that the encounters have been discouraging new recruits.' Meanwhile, on 9 Jul, assailants opened gunfire at Kap’s Café, a newly opened restaurant owned by Indian comedian and actor Kapil Sharma, in Surrey, British Columbia (BC). Germany-based Harjit Singh Laddi has claimed responsibility for the attack. He along with one Toofan Singh cited anger over certain remarks allegedly made by Kapil Sharma on Nihangs (traditional Sikh warriors) as the motive behind the shooting. This attack comes close on the heels of a spate of extortions wracking the South Asian community in BC. In November 2023, multiple rounds were fired at the White Rock home of singer-actor Rupinder Singh Grewal alias Gippy Grewal. In April 2024, Amritpal Singh Dhillon alias AP Dhillon’s North Vancouver property was the site of a drive-by shooting. In June of this year, bullets struck a trucking business tied to rapper Jaskiran Singh Aujla alias Karan Aujla in Surrey. According to World Sikh Organization President Danish Singh, 'This violence has its roots in Indian gang networks...gangs have ties to the Government of India. The disinformation and propaganda, including efforts to falsely link it to Khalistan and portray it as ‘Sikh extremism’, is a deliberate attempt to distort reality and damage our community’s reputation’ (earlier coverage).