ON Thursday, February 1 at approximately 1:21 a.m., Surrey RCMP received a report of shots fired at a residence in the 2800-block of 154 Street. Frontline officers attended the scene and located evidence consistent with a shooting. No injuries were reported.
Police remained in the area, examining the scene, speaking with witnesses and canvassing the neighbourhood for CCTV footage. The Surrey RCMP Major Crime Section has conduct of the investigation and investigators believe this was an isolated incident. Officers are still working to determine the motive of this incident.
According to well-known Punjabi journalist Gurpreet Singh Sahota, “the homeowner, a Sikh individual closely associated with the late Sikh leader Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar, revealed that he has experienced instances of being followed in the past.”
Sahota also said: “The victim of the shooting told me that he had informed the police, prior to this attack, that he was being followed, that he regularly saw [suspicious] vehicles parked in front of his house, and that he thought someone was planning an attack on him. All of this information was captured on camera, but the police did nothing.”
Sahota said that a bullet missed the homeowner’s sleeping child by two feet.
A spokesperson for the B.C. Gurdwaras Council told the media on Thursday evening that the home belongs to Simranjeet Singh.
Gurdwaras Council Moninder Singh reaffirmed “the dangers of Canadian intelligence sharing information with India,” at a press conference at Surrey’s Guru Nanak Gurdwara.
The shooting is “believed to be linked to [Simranjeet Singh’s] advocacy and community role for Khalistan (free Sikh homeland movement) and India’s ongoing targeting of Canadian Sikhs.”
A car was riddled with bullets as was the house.
What the community finds shocking is that the RCMP highlighted “no injuries” in their press release while making no mention whatsoever that a bullet missed hitting Simranjeet Singh’s child.
If you have any information including CCTV and dash camera footage, you are requested to contact Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 and quote file 2024-15076.
