‘Evasive Canada cops almost derailed Kanishka probe’

“At the time of blast,Canadian ambassador was recently replaced and there was no one at that time. Canada’s response was slow at that time,but the Irish people did an excellent job,” said Major. In his report,he had commented on racism angle,“While the Commission does not feel that the term “racism” is helpful,it is also understandable that the callous attitude by the Government of Canada to the families of the victims might lead them to wonder whether a similar response would have been forthcoming had the overwhelming majority of the victims of the bombing been Canadians who were white. The Commission concludes that both the Government and the Canadian public were slow to recognize the bombing of Flight 182 as a Canadian issue.”

According to Major,the plane was two-and-a-half hours late. The manager (of Air India) was anxious to get off the ground. The X-ray screening machine broke down after checking part of the luggage and PD-4 sniffer device had to be used,but Air India security staff were not trained to use it.

He said,“It was around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon. M Singh got off the plane unobserved. He could go off so easily.”

He added that terrorists wanted to take revenge for “invasion of Golden Temple” as “assassination of Indira Gandhi was not enough”. It had come out that they had warned Sikhs not to fly Air India.

In reply to a question,he said,“Canada was little soft on expressions on Sikh terrorism. They (the radicals) were very vocal and threatening. Local politicians were more concerned to get their votes.”

He added,“We have heard that radical Sikhs are more active in Canada than here (in Punjab).”

On Ripudaman Singh Malik,he said,“The case concerning him is about fraud. He applied for legal aid saying he had no money. But when investigated,it was found that he had assets. He has lot of businesses. He runs a school; 200 graduates from the school have criminal record. I do not know what kind of curriculum they have.”

On compensation,he said,“It should have been given immediately like what we saw in case of 9/11. The compensation has to be evaluated by putting those killed as alive today.”

He said that it was a great handicap to start inquiry years after the incident.

“I am satisfied with the report. We had four years of evidence. Six experts on air security from the United States assisted us.”