You can forget India for a moment, but the way terrorist forces are raising their heads in Canada is a danger not only for India but also for Canada. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said this on September 17 after the end of G20. Canada had faced the danger that Jaishankar was talking about in an interview with Malayalam TV channel ‘Asianet’ 38 years ago. In fact, the same Khalistanis terrorists whom Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is clashing with India to save are accused of killing 268 Canadian citizens. Today in this story we will know how Khalistani terrorists had killed 329 innocent people aboard Air India Flight 182…
Date-22 June, 1985
A man named Manjeet Singh checks in at the airport at 3:30 pm to go to Toronto from Vancouver, Canada. When the ticket is not confirmed, he starts requesting the agent present at the airport. He says that if not him, then at least his luggage should be sent on flight 182 from Toronto to India.
The plane’s agent initially hesitates, but because of the crowd of people, she agrees to Manjeet Singh’s request. After this, Singh gets the suitcase checked in by pushing it with his foot. However, when he is doing this, no one pays attention to him and he easily succeeds in his objective. In this way his luggage is kept on the flight from Vancouver to Toronto. About three hours later the flight departs for Toronto. Even though Singh was not in the plane, But his suitcase is there. This flight reaches Toronto at 8:22 pm. After this, passengers and luggage are shifted to Air India flight 182 i.e. Kanishka aircraft coming from Toronto to India. This plane was going to fly from Toronto to India via London. One of the suitcases shifted in this plane was that of Manjeet Singh. After Vancouver, Manjeet’s luggage was also not checked at Toronto Airport. It was directly placed in a Kanishka Viman bound for India. While shifting the luggage, the flight attendants did not even pay attention to which passenger the suitcase belonged to, whether he was in the plane or not.
Date- June 23, 1985
At 12:15 pm, Air India flight 182 (Kanishka) takes off from Toronto and leaves for Montreal. After this, from here the plane flies to London’s Heathrow Airport. There were 307 passengers and 22 crew members on board this flight. The plane was about 45 minutes away from London’s Heathrow Airport when it suddenly disappeared from the radar at 8.16 am.
The control room tries to find out the whereabouts of the Air India plane by contacting two other planes flying on the same route. When he is asked whether he can see Air India flight 182 anywhere. The answer from the pilots of both those planes is – No. After some time, the pilot of a British cargo plane sends a message to the control room, as soon as this message is received, there is chaos there. Actually, the pilot of the cargo plane tells that he has seen the wreckage of Flight 182 in the Atlantic Ocean. Later during investigation it was found that as soon as this plane reached the coast of Ireland, Then there was a loud explosion. At this time this plane was flying at an altitude of 31 thousand feet. The explosion was so powerful that the entire plane turned into a ball of fire. No passenger on board could survive. Rescue workers were able to recover the bodies of only 181 people. Of those who died, 268 were Canadian citizens of Indian origin. Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America, the blast of Air India Flight 182 was the world’s largest aviation-related terrorist attack. Khalistani terrorists operating from Canada were accused of the death of 329 innocent people.
Attempt to explode another Indian plane shortly after Kanishka blast
A few minutes after the blast in the Kanishka aircraft, a massive explosion also occurred at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Here too, this explosion occurred when the luggage of the flight that had reached Tokyo from Canada was being shifted to Air India flight-301 going to India.
Actually, Khalistani terrorists had also planned to blow up the second flight of Air India going to Mumbai via Tokyo. For this, a bomb was cleverly placed in the luggage for check-in in the plane leaving from Canada. While shifting the luggage in Tokyo, the bomb exploded at the airport itself. Two employees lifting the goods were killed on the spot. In this way, the conspiracy of Khalistanis to blow up the second plane of Air India failed. The Government of India had also formed a separate committee to investigate this incident. This committee, formed under the leadership of former judge BM Kripal, had said in its report that Air India flight 182 was the victim of a terrorist attack and not an engine failure. Babbar Khalsa International leader Talwinder Singh Parmar was said to be the mastermind of this incident.
Everything was happening openly, yet the Canadian government did not take action
On November 8, 1985, Royal Canadian Mounted Police i.e. RCMP and Intelligence Service raid the house of Talwinder Singh Parmar, head of Babbar Khalsa International Organization in the Air India Bombing case. He is arrested.
Apart from this, in February 1988, the second accused Inderjit Singh Reyat, who was a mechanic by profession, is arrested from England. Reyat is accused of making the bomb that exploded at Tokyo airport. The investigation found that the bomb had been placed inside a radio which Reyat had purchased near his home in Duncan. Till now, many things have come to light that both of them had a hand in this incident. Despite this, both are released citing lack of evidence. Only Reyat is fined $2,000, and that too in some other case. After this Reyat settled in England. Even before this tragic incident of Air India bombing, the Canadian Secret Service was keeping an eye on Parmar and Inderjit Singh. Before the incident on June 23, on June 4, the Canadian Secret Service had seen the two going to a forest on Vancouver Island. According to the report, he had tested the explosion here. Although, The Secret Service considered it a gunshot and did not share its information with the police. After Parmar’s name surfaced in this incident, the Secret Service had said that they were only instructed to keep information about the two Khalistanis and not to take action against them. After being released from Canada, Parmar went to Pakistan. From there he reached India in the year 1992. He died in a police encounter here in Mumbai. According to CBC News, Parmar was in police custody shortly before his death and was interrogated about the Air India bombing. Instead of taking action on them. After being released from Canada, Parmar went to Pakistan. From there he reached India in the year 1992. He died in a police encounter here in Mumbai. According to CBC News, Parmar was in police custody shortly before his death and was interrogated about the Air India bombing. Instead of taking action on them. After being released from Canada, Parmar went to Pakistan. From there he reached India in the year 1992. He died in a police encounter here in Mumbai. According to CBC News, Parmar was in police custody shortly before his death and was interrogated about the Air India bombing.
Terrorists were openly warning
Even before this planned attack, slogans of Khalistan Zindabad were being raised from many Gurudwaras in Canada. Babbar Khalsa organization was openly issuing warning not to travel in Air India. Despite this, Canada’s security agencies could not even find out this.
Not only this, before this incident, Parmar had said in a meeting of Khalistanis that Air India planes would drop from the sky. Despite knowing about this, no action was taken against Parmar before and after the incident. The Canadian police kept watching him silently giving such warnings. On January 22, 1986, the Aviation Safety Board of Canada also admitted that the explosion in Air India-182 was a conspiracy.
Separate court rooms were built in Canada for the investigation of Air India bombing.
In 1995, Tara Singh Hayer, a newspaper editor living in Surrey, Canada, told Canadian police that he heard a man named Bagri admitting that he was involved in the bombings. After this, a third accused is entered in the Air India bombing. However, despite the efforts of the Canadian Police, Tara Singh Hayer, a witness in this case, did not get adequate security and was murdered in 1998.
This case was so high profile in Canada that it was named the Air India Trial. Considering the delicacy of the case, a separate court room costing 7.2 million dollars i.e. Rs 59 crore 86 lakh was created. In this, 20 judges were put on duty for hearing. The Canadian Intelligence Agency admitted that they had deleted 150 hours of call records of people related to this case. Whereas these could be used as evidence in the court. The agent said that if the records were not erased, those giving the information could be in danger. In the year 2000, Canadian Police had arrested a businessman named Ripudaman Singh and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who worked in a mill, in this Air India bombing case. They were charged with first degree murder. Although, In 2005, Supreme Court Justice EN Josephan had said that there was no solid evidence against him. Whereas the FBI informer had told that a few days after the incident, Bagri had said that he had got this work done.
In 2006, the Government of Canada convenes a Public Inquiry into the Air India Bombing. Retired Supreme Court judge John C. Mayer leads it. They release a 3200-page report in 2010. He holds the government and security agencies responsible for this. He says that the governments treated the families of the dead like enemies. The court gives its verdict that Parmar was the mastermind of this entire bombing. In its report, the Inquiry had blamed the shortcomings of the security system in Canada for this incident. Former Supreme Court of Canada Justice John Major, who investigated the incident, said in 2010 that the Canadian government needed to take responsibility. John Major blamed the Government of Canada for this accident. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service were held responsible. After the Inquiry, in 2010 the Government of Canada formally apologized to the victims. Ripudaman, the accused in this case, was shot dead in 2022.
