Gangster Sukhdool Singh Gill, also known as Sukha Duneke, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Canada’s Winnipeg city on Wednesday, reported The Times of India.

Gill, who hailed from Punjab’s Moga district, was an associate of designated terrorist Arsh Dalla of the Khalistan Tiger Force, according to the newspaper.

The Punjab Police alleged that he fled to Canada in 2017 and had been running an extortion racket there since then, according to The Indian Express.

Gill’s name is also in a list published by the National Investigation Agency on Tuesday of 40 persons allegedly involved in terror-related activities.

He is also accused of being involved in the murder of kabaddi player Sandeep Naggal Ambian. In March 2022, Ambian was shot dead during a kabaddi match in Amritsar. The police have alleged that Gill provided shelter to the people who killed him.

The police have said that Gill is part of the Bambiha gang, which is a rival of gangs led by Goldy Brar and Lawrence Bishnoi. Brar and Bishnoi are accused in the murder of singer Sidhu Moose Wala who was shot dead in Mansa on May 29, 2022. Two others were injured in the shooting.

The development comes amid a widening rift between India and Canada in the wake of Ottawa’s allegations that India may have been involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force, on its soil.

India had quickly rejected the charges as “absurd and motivated”. It also expelled a Canadian diplomat, in a tit-for-tat move after Canada expelled an official of the Indian foreign intelligence service.

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