Two Sikhs Arrested and Charged with the 1985 Air India Bombings
Posted by Shyrone K Singh
Two Sikhs Arrested and Charged with the 1985 Air India Bombings
Posted by Shyrone K Singh on Sunday, 10/29/2000 7:39 AM MDT
| Wahe Guru Ji Ka Khalsa Wahe Guru Ji Ki Fateh. Herewithin are various news articles published 10/28/2000 regarding 2 Sikhs arrested and charged with the 1985 Air India bombing. Also included is an original poem composed by Harmohanjit S Pandher dedicated to those who perished in this very tragic incident. Now will the arrests answer the author's query and: "fulfill the dwindling hope that justice 'delayed' does not necessarily mean 'denied'"? Will the verdict be for for justice or injustice for this most heinous act? Shyrone Kaur Singh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Air India 15th Anniversary (poem) Sikh-History Discussion Forum Author: Harmohanjit S Pandher [email protected] 06/21/2000 329 Innocents Someone's mom or daughter Was bombed and slaughtered, Someone's father or son Sat amongst the fallen ones? The 329 who tragically flew On Air India Flight 182. From Vancouver to New Delhi To the dead of the Irish Sea, Divers scan for black boxes, As a plan by black-hearted foxes Blows up in their unsightly faces? While widows wail on a nightly basis. A suitcase full of explosives, A long list of possible motives, A throng of relatives at the airport Hear their families fatal report, As the bereaved crash to their knees? Ashes already scattered in the seas. Some may know who's at fault But their secret's in a vault? Who has the spine to unlock it? Who's lining their back pocket With the blood of those passengers? Who's silencing all the messengers? The justice system shares the blame, Its slow incompetence is a shame? How can we lay their souls to rest Without a single charge or arrest? "ASAP", said the RCMP and CSIS? Flight 182 remains in pieces. Our sole glimmers of consolation, In this 15-year murder investigation, Are those 658 omniscient eyes Exposing in the heavenly skies The devils behind this heinous sin? The death of Canada's innocence. by: Harmohanjit Singh Pandher Burnaby, BC, Canada June 23, 2000 marks the 15th anniversary of the world's largest act of aviation terrorism and the largest mass murder in Canadian history. The bombing of Air India Flight 182 killed all 329 innocent men, women and children on board. With each passing day, the idea that the families of those victims will ever see justice looks more and more like a pipedream. The sad truth is that this nightmare could have ended long ago if the political will had been there from the outset. 15 years is indeed a long time, even for our federal, snail-like bureaucracy and a justice system that's anything but swift. Who knows how many grieving grandparents and parents have passed away in the intervening years with question marks striking at their hearts? It's time to lift the shroud of secrecy on this investigation, have a Royal Inquiry into the matter, and finally show some respect to the bereaved. And in the process, perhaps, fulfill the dwindling hope that justice 'delayed' does not necessarily mean 'denied.' - Harmohanjit Singh Pandher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saturday, October 28, 2000 Official 'happy' over arrests in Air India bombing MUMBAI: An Indian civil aviation official Saturday said he was happy that Canadian authorities had arrested and charged two Sikh men with killing 329 people aboard an Air India flight in 1985. Sanat Kaul, joint secretary of civil aviation, said the arrests, after 15 years of investigations, were "a very good development. "We are happy that the 15-year-long investigation has borne fruit. The Canadians have been in touch with us regularly and have been asking us for information which we have been providing. "It took a long time for the culprits to be caught," he said. "Since the crime was committed on Canadian soil I guess they have jurisdiction to try the culprits. We have yet to get a full report of the latest developments." Air India officials declined comment. Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51, were arrested in Vancouver on Friday the bombing. Air India Flight 182 left Toronto on June 23, 1985, stopped in Montreal and was en route to New Delhi and Bombay when it exploded off the coast of Ireland. Ripudaman Singh, a wealthy Vancouver business man, is linked to a Sikh fundamentalist group. Sagri was aide to the Sikh extremist leader Talwinder Singh Parmar, a former Vancouver resident killed by Indian anti-terrorist forces on October 15, 1992, according to police. The two suspects were also charged with the murder of two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport, killed the same day in 1985 when a suitcase due to be loaded on to another Air India flight exploded prematurely. In addition, the men are charged with the attempted murder of the passengers on that flight, Air India's Flight 301, which was headed from Tokyo to Bangkok. Police had already established a link between the two attacks. Police suspicions have long rested on radical elements of Vancouver's Sikh community, where around half of Canada's 200,000 Sikhs live. The presumed terrorists are believed to have been seeking revenge for the deaths of more than 1,000 Sikhs at the hands of Indian troops in the June 1984 Amritsar Golden Temple massacre. AFP [ Source: Indian Express http://www.expressindia.com/news/daily/20001028/02802700.htm ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 15 yrs later, Canadian cops arrest two for Kanishka blast JACQUES LEMIEUX VANCOUVER, OCTOBER 28: After a 15-year investigation, the Canadian authorities have arrested and charged two people of Indian origin with killing 329 people aboard Air-India Flight 182 Kanishka that exploded off the coast of Ireland in 1985. The two men, Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51, were arrested here on Friday, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spokeswoman Cate Galliford, who added that police expect to make further arrests. Malik is the multi-millionaire head of the Khalsa Credit Union, which has 16,000 members while Bagri is a sawmill worker. Both are from British Columbia. Air-India Flight 182 left Toronto on June 23, 1985, stopped in Montreal and was en route to New Delhi and Bombay when it exploded. In the course of their $ 20-million investigation, Canadian police had determined that the Boeing 747 was brought down by a bomb that had been checked onto a Canadian Airline flight at the Vancouver airport by a Canadian of Indian origin. The bag was transferred to the doomed Flight 182 in Toronto. Ripudaman Singh, the Vancouver businessmen, is linked to a fundamentalist group. Bagri was aide to Talwinder Singh Parmar, the founder of Babbar Khalsa who was killed in India on October 15, 1992. The two suspects were also charged with the murder of two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport, killed the same day in 1985 when a suitcase due to be loaded on to another Air-India flight exploded prematurely. In addition, the men are charged with the attempted murder of the passengers on that flight, Air-India's Flight 301, which was headed from Tokyo to Bangkok. Police had already established a link between the two attacks. ``The RCMP allege that both bombs originated or were placed on respective flights originating from Vancouver, British Columbia, as a result of an alleged conspiracy taking place in part in the province of British Columbia,´´ according to RCMP spokeswoman, Beverly Busson. Both the late Parmar, and another Indo-Canadian Inderjit Singh Reyat, are named as accomplices in the plot to blow up Flight 301. Reyat is currently serving a 10-year sentence, imposed in 1991, for manufacturing the bomb intended to blow up Air-India's Tokyo-Bangkok flight. Canadian newspaper National Post reported that the RCMP has charged Bagri with attempted murder in a 1988 attack on newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer, a critic of Sikh extremism. Hayer was paralysed in an initial attack, then shot dead in 1998. The two accused, the newspaper says, are to appear in court on Monday, launching a legal process that so far has occupied 13 Crown attorneys who have been working since September, 1998, assessing the evidence. As many as a thousand witnesses, including some from Ireland and India, are expected to testify at the trial, which could last several years. Const. Galliford said the Air-India task force, consisting of 60 officers, is relieved but apprehensive. ``They feel very hopeful regarding these charges. However, this does not mark the full conclusion of the investigation,´´ she said. ``They have a lot of work ahead of them.´´ The police, said Post, have reached 123 family members to tell them about the long-awaited arrests. ``They are showing mixed emotions,´´ she said. ``A lot, in very many ways, have moved on with their lives. They are very relieved and, of course, us being in contact with them has opened up a lot of things they have tried to put behind them, so it´s a very difficult time for them.´´ India today termed the arrest as a ``positive´´ development. ``Any person who is involved in terrorism of any kind has to bear the consequences of the law,´´ an External Affairs ministry spokesman said. (AFP & AGENCIES) Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers [ Source: http://www.indian-express.com/ie/daily/20001029/iin29017.html ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ October 28, 2000 Sikhs in Canada Said to Be Relieved at Arrests By REUTERS Filed at 5:49 p.m. ET VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Canadian police on Saturday downplayed the prospect of reprisals following the arrest of two suspected Sikh religious extremists for the 1985 bombing of an Air India airliner that killed 329 people. More arrests are planned in the investigation into the bombing, which was world's deadliest act of aviation sabotage, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said none had been made since the two men were detained on Friday. Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51, and Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, are accused of murder for the June 23, 1985 bombing that destroyed Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland and a related bombing that day that killed two workers at Tokyo's Narita airport. Mali, of Vancouver, and Bagri, of Kamloops, B.C., are prominent member of the fundamentalist wing of the Sikh religion in Canada that has waged a often violent battle with modernist elements for control of lucrative temples. ``All that we have been told (by Sikh leaders) is that members of the community are relieved that charges have finally be laid, and there is no indication that we have to be concerned about civil unrest,´´ said RCMP spokeswoman Cate Galliford. British Columbia has one of the largest Sikh populations outside India, and extremists in B.C. are believed to have plotted the bombings to revenge the Indian army's 1984 storming of the Golden Temple -- Sikhism's holiest shrine. Police on Friday also accused Bagri of the 1988 attempted murder of prominent moderate Sikh journalist Tara Singh Hayer. Although that attack failed, Hayer was eventually killed in 1998. Police have made no arrests in that case. Hayer's family has said he was killed because he knew who committed the Air India attack and was an outspoken critic of militant Sikh extremists. Sikh leaders had often complained about the slow pace of the probe, saying the failure to make arrests left a cloud over the entire religion, and say the laying of charges could ease tensions. ``The fingers have been pointed at our whole community. Now people can see that it (the violence) doesn´t involve 99.9 percent of the Sikhs,´´ Gurnam Singh Sanghara told the Vancouver Sun. Police complained during the probe that silence in the Sikh community made their work more difficult. The slogan on the RCMP Air India Task's force's Web site reads: ``To commit a crime is immoral -- to tolerate a crime is unforgivable.´´ The Air India bombing killed more people than the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. [ Source: New York Times 10/28/2000 http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-crime-a.html ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ October 28, 2000 Canada Arrests 2 in 1985 Bombing of Jet By JAMES BROOKE Canadian authorities arrested two Vancouver-area men yesterday and charged them in the deaths of 329 passengers and crew members of an Air-India Boeing 747 that blew up over the Irish Sea in 1985, en route from Canada to London. The two, Ripudan Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51, were arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, capping what the Mounties called the longest and most expensive criminal investigation in the nation's history. The downing of the jet is considered the deadliest act of sabotage in the history of aviation. In an eight-count indictment, the men were charged with using suitcases packed with explosives to bomb two Air-India jets on the same day, June 23, 1985. Air-India Flight 182 blew up in midair, killing all aboard. An hour earlier, a suitcase blew up in Narita Airport, outside Tokyo, as it was being loaded onto Air-India Flight 301, destined for Bangkok; it killed two baggage handlers. Anger against India erupted in 1984, when Indian troops occupied and destroyed Sikhdom's holy site, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The temple had become a center for radicals seeking an independent Sikh state, an issue that polarized the Sikh diaspora around the world. Mr. Malik and Mr. Bagri, who are both Sikhs, are to appear in court on Monday. Mr. Malik, who runs a school and credit union catering to the immigrant community, has long been a suspect in the case. Mr. Bagri, a mill worker from Kamloops, British Columbia, was described Thursday in The Province in Vancouver as a key lieutenant of Talwinder Singh Parmar, a Sikh militant leader shot to death by the Indian police in 1992. Mr. Bagri was also charged with trying to murder Tara Singh Hayer, editor of The Indo-Canadian Times, North America's largest Punjabi newspaper, in 1998. Mr. Hayer survived the attempt but three weeks later was shot to death in his wheelchair in his garage. "Although arrests have been made, this does not mark the conclusion of the police investigation," Constable Cate Galliford, spokeswoman for the Mounties' Air-India task force, said at news conference yesterday afternoon. She said, "We do anticipate future arrests, but we don't know when those will take place." Beverly Busson, the Mounties' commanding officer in Vancouver, said at the news conference, "This has been a worldwide investigation with extremely challenging logistical problems." Canada is home to half a million people of Indian origin, most of them Sikhs. Four Sikhs serve in Parliament, mostly from the Vancouver area, where half of the nation's Indo- Canadians live. Earlier this year, a Sikh, Ujjal Dosanjh, became premier of British Columbia and Canada's first nonwhite provincial premier. Mr. Dosanjh, a moderate, paid a price for speaking out against Sikh extremism that gripped the Vancouver community after the Golden Temple raid. Four months before the Air-India bombing, Mr. Dosanjh was attacked outside his law office by a man wielding an iron rod. Mr. Dosanjh suffered a broken hand and needed 80 stitches for head wounds. In recent years radicalism has ebbed. Moderates have won control of Vancouver's largest Sikh temples, the provincial government has cut "community development" grants that once went to radical temples and the federal government is trying to curb Punjabi hate-radio transmissions broadcast from Washington State. As rumors of arrests circulated in Vancouver, Premier Dosanjh said charges would be a large step for Canadian justice. He said, "I think people of British Columbia, people of Canada, would finally heave a sigh of relief." [Source: New York Times 10/28/2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/28/world/28CANA.html ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SATURDAY OCTOBER 28 2000 Two charged in Air India bombingCanadian police arrested two Sikh men late yesterday and charged them with killing 331 people in a pair of 1985 bombings that targeted Air India airlines, including one that downed a jumbo jet off the coast of Ireland. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced the charges in Canada's biggest mass-murder case after a 15-year investigation that was the nation's largest and cost millions of dollars. Air India Flight 182 from Montreal to New Delhi, with a planned stop in London, was blown up off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people aboard. It is believed to be the most deadly terrorist bombing of an airplane. That same day, an attempt to sabotage a separate Air India flight in Tokyo failed when a bomb exploded prematurely, killing two baggage handlers. Canadian investigators have long said they believed Sikh terrorists seeking revenge for India's 1984 raid on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the seat of faith for the Sikh minority in India, planted a bomb aboard Flight 182. A Sikh man is serving a ten-year sentence in Canada for his involvement in the Tokyo blast. Police identified the two men arrested Friday as Ripudaman Singh Malik, 53, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 51. They are charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiring to cause bombs to be put on aircraft and causing a bomb to be placed on an aircraft. The charges accuse them of conspiring to kill all 329 passengers on Flight 182 and more than 170 on the plane in Tokyo. Mr Malik was arrested in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver, while Mr Bagri was taken into custody in Kamloops, about 75 miles northeast of Vancouver. British Columbia is home to about half of Canada's 200,000 Sikhs. [ Source: The Times (London) 10/28/2000 http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,26734,00.html ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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