Terrorism - be it political or religious is not a solution to achieve the desired goal. It gets us no where. World-wide terrorism, hijacking of planes, holding a large number of people hostage for a political cause will not give the desired results. Because of tough security at airports world over plane-hijackings is is almost controlled now. The bombing of Air-India flight 182 in June 1985 from Montreal, Canada to London carrying mostly people of Indian origin was a disgusting thing and the perpetrators will hold their sin and guilt for eternity. One of the terrorists involved in Air-India 182 bombing was shot dead recently on June 23 in day light in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, BC
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| Air-India 182 bombing Ripudaman Singh Malik, hindustannewshub.com |
Above image: Sikh leader Ripudaman Singh Malik, a conspirator was accused and later acquitted due to inadequate evidence in the 1985 Air India bombing case. Recently he was shot dead in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada and the incident is said to have happened at 9 am local time on Friday, when he was on his way to his office. Inderjit Singh, the main conspirator who procured the bomb materials and assembled them was later sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment on charges of man-slaughter It is being claimed that Malik was killed because of his soft attitude toward the present Indian government.........
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| Air-India flight 182 taken 2 weeks before bombing, wikipedia. |
On 22 June 1985, Air India Flight 182 Boeing 747-237B registered VT-EFO was approaching London's Heathrow at 800 km/hr at an altitude of 31000 feet over the Atlantic on the route assigned by the near-by ATC. The huge airliner disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to London; the bomb planted in the plane was believed to have destroyed a critical bulkhead causing sudden decompression and the structural break-up of the aircraft in the air. The broken fragments, etc., fell into the Atlantic ocean 190 kilometers (120 miles) off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people, including 268 Indian immigrants to Canada, 27 British citizens, and 24 Indian citizens who found their watery grave. It was said the explosion was caused by the bomb planted by the Sikh militants based in Canada. The bombing of Air India Flight 182 is said to be a daring deadliest aviation terrorist attack incident in the history of Air India and was the world's deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the September 11 attacks in 2001 on twin towers of WTC, NYC.
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| June 1985 Air-India 182 flightpath rcinet.ca |
The second bomb planted aboard Air India Flight 182 in Canada was successful but the first one meant to explode aboard Air India Flight 301 exploded in the cargo handling area at Narita, Japan. Because of delay, the suitcase with bomb was prevented from being loaded onto another Air India flight. At Narita a couple of workers were killed and a few injured. It was eventually determined that both plots and the bombs, which had been hidden inside luggage, had originated in Canada.
An investigation by the RCMP - Royal Canadian Mounted police led to a Sikh militant group based British Columbia and three men in particular: Inderjit Singh Reyat, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagr were picked up.. During the course of investigation RCMP bungled the investigation and missed the evidence. Inderjit Singh Reyat made a plea bargain for his own crime and admitted to manslaughter charges, but then in 2006 lied in testimony against alleged co-conspirators. resulting in the acquittal of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagr in this sensational case in the Canadian history
The bombings by the Sikh militants were thought to be an act of vigilantism - in retaliation for an Indian government's serious operation against Sikh militants hiding in the holy place “Golden Temple” in Amritsar, Punjab, India.
Among some questioned, Inderjit Singh Reyat, a dual British-Canadian national and a member of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), who pleaded guilty in 2003 to manslaughter was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for assembling the bombs that exploded on board Air India Flight 182 and at Narita.
This investigation and prosecution proceedings lasted almost twenty years and it was a big drain on the Canadian exchequer - whopping C$130 million; billed as the most expensive trial in Canadian history,
In 2006 the Governor General-in-Council appointed the former Supreme Court Justice John C. Major to conduct a commission of inquiry. His report, released on 17 June 2010, concluded that a "cascading series of errors" by the Government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had allowed the terrorist attack to take place.
