Police are investigating an overnight shooting at a South Surrey home that local community members say belongs to a prominent Sikh activist.
Surrey RCMP say they first responded to reports of gunshots just after 1:20 a.m. PT Thursday at a home located near the 2800 block of 154 Street.
A spokesperson for the B.C. Gurdwaras Council said the home belongs to Simranjeet Singh, who was a friend of slain pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Cpl. Sarbjit Sangha said officers stayed in the area and spoke to neighbours and witnesses, and are currently reviewing CCTV footage to find out more about the shooting. No one was injured.
A CBC News reporter who went to the home on Thursday afternoon found a car that had been heavily damaged by gunfire, along with multiple bullet holes in the house itself.
Sangha did not confirm how many shots were fired into the house, and said police believe the incident was isolated in nature.
“The investigation is in, still, very early stages so the motive of this shooting has not been determined as of this time,” she said.
Gurdwara spokesperson alleges Indian connection
Moninder Singh, the spokesperson for the B.C. Gurdwaras Council, said community members believe homeowner Simranjeet Singh’s connection with Hardeep Singh Nijjar might have played a part in the shooting.
Nijjar was a loud voice for the Khalistani cause, a separatist movement that seeks to create a Sikh majority state in parts of northern India.
He was killed last year in a shooting in Surrey that the federal government believes was carried out by agents of the Indian government. For its part, the government of India has denied any role in Nijjar’s death.
Moninder Singh said the early Thursday shooting at Simranjeet’s house came a few days after he helped organize a pro-Khalistan protest at the Indian consulate in Vancouver on Jan. 26.
“[Simranjeet] feels like this is the Indian state, or their actors, that are playing their part here to kind of scare them off from … the activism work that he’s doing,” he said.
Moninder added that the “brazen middle of the night” attack nearly claimed the life of Simranjeet’s six-year-old child.
“I think it’s just by the grace of God here that people made it out safely,” he said.
He added that Simranjeet had been in touch with RCMP before the shooting to report being followed after protests and fears for his life. He also said the shooting would not deter Simranjeet’s activism for a separate Sikh state.
Sangha said that due to privacy reasons she could not confirm if the victim had been in touch with investigators prior to the Thursday shooting.
Community member Grant Christy said he has lived in the area for 25 years and it had generally been very quiet up until Thursday morning.
“It was about 1:30 in the morning, but definitely woke up to, I think five or six gunshots. That’s what we heard,” he said. “You look out your window to see what happened, but it’s all quiet until a bunch of police showed up, you know, 15 minutes later.”
Anyone with more information on the shooting, including dashcam or CCTV footage, is asked to call police at 604-599-0502 and quote file number 2024-15076.