India The gangster accused of masterminding Canada killings

In the Indian state of Punjab, the presence of gangsters can be felt everywhere. Small-town hustlers smuggle liquor and extort businesses for cash, while criminal overlords run guns and drugs - and even control Punjab's film and music industries. Yet one figure looms above them all.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Lawrence Bishnoi, who hails from a small village in the state, is now widely regarded as India's most feared mob boss. And although he has been in prison for the past nine years, Bishnoi's enterprise has grown from a small-time racket on a Punjabi university campus to a national - and even international - criminal network, which in recent years has been linked to some of the most high-profile killings in India and beyond.

The increasingly global footprint of his gang became apparent this week when Bishnoi's name came up at a press conference in Canada. Senior Canadian police officials alleged on Monday that Indian diplomats had been engaging in "criminal" activity on Canadian soil, including the harassing and targeted killing of Canadian Sikhs linked to a separatist movement.

Among those believed to have been targeted is the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a gurdwara last June. Brigitte Gauvin, a Canadian police assistant commissioner, accused Indian diplomats of using "organised crime elements" to carry out attacks on Canadian soil. She named the Bishnoi group, stating that investigators believed they were "connected to the agents of the government of India".