In an interview with Reuters, Satinder Pal Singh Raju of Woodland, California, said FBI agents went to talk to him and a friend who was driving the truck when they and another passenger were attacked on Interstate 505 South in Yolo County on Thursday as they returned from a late dinner in Vacaville.
Nijjar was killed in June 2023 outside his gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Surrey, British Columbia. That killing, and Trudeau’s suggestion of possible Indian government involvement, sparked a diplomatic crisis between the countries.
Raju said through an interpreter that a white car pulled up to the left of their truck and then stayed behind them before pulling back alongside. That’s when the first bullet was fired.
“When I heard the first shot, I ducked,” he said. “But then I heard more shots.” He said he immediately thought of Nijjar, saying “that’s how Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed and the whole image of the scene flashed through my mind.”
As they tried to escape the gunfire, their truck skidded off the road into a ditch, Raju said. He and his two friends fled into a nearby field and hid behind a haystack while they called 911. Police officers later told him they had located at least five bullet casings.
The FBI’s Sacramento office confirmed it is cooperating with the California Highway Patrol “in support of the investigation” into the shooting.
A California Highway Patrol spokesman confirmed the shooting occurred but declined to provide details, saying the investigation is ongoing.
In the same month as Nijjar’s murder, the FBI foiled an alleged assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, another prominent Sikh separatist with dual citizenship in Canada and the United States.
The US Justice Department has charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta with attempting to arrange Pannun’s murder at the behest of an Indian intelligence official.
Gupta has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial in New York.
Four Indian nationals in Canada face murder and conspiracy charges over Nijjar’s death.
India has denied involvement in both incidents and it was unclear whether there was a connection between the drive-by shooting involving Raju and those earlier incidents.
The Indian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Friday on the recent shooting in California.
Police warns Sikh activists
In the days and months after Nijjar’s killing, the FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police privately warned at least seven Sikh activists that their lives could be in grave danger, without specifying the source of the threat.
Raju told Reuters he was not among those who received such calls.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that threats and harassment against Sikh community leaders, including elected officials, have persisted in the United States and Canada since Nijjar’s death.
Raju is involved with Sikhs for Justice, an advocacy group co-founded by Pannun that organizes non-binding referendums around the world urging the Indian state of Punjab to secede from India and create an independent state called Khalistan.
The movement led to a violent insurgency in the Indian state of Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s before being crushed by Delhi.
The Aug. 11 shooting occurred two weeks after Raju returned from Calgary, Canada, where he helped organize a referendum that involved about 55,000 members of the Sikh community, according to Pannun.
In 2019, India declared Sikhs for Justice an illegal association, citing its involvement in extremist activities. Pannun and its members deny these allegations.
Raju is not as well-known as Pannun internationally, but he said he is actively involved in organizing referendums.
He said he has no enemies and suspects the shooting was motivated by a desire to stoke fear in those who support the Khalistan movement.
“They want to stop the Khalistan referendum,” he said. “But this attack on me and death threats will not deter me from continuing the campaign.”
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