On June 23, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar paid homage to the memory of the victims of what he described as one of the worst acts of terrorism in history, the bombing of an Air India aircraft that killed 329 people on that day in 1985. The aircraft was blown up by Sikh separatists of the Babbar Khalsa militant group, allegedly to avenge the Indian Army action at the Golden Temple in June 1984. The bulk of those killed in the attack were Canadians. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement against the “senseless violence that terrorism perpetuates” and a reminder of “our shared responsibility to unequivocally condemn terrorism”. Today marks the 39th anniversary of one of the worst acts of terrorism in history. Pay my homage to the memory of the 329 victims of AI 182 ‘Kanishka’ who were killed this day in 1985. My thoughts are with their families. The anniversary is a reminder why terrorism should… — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) June 23, 2024 Thirty-nine years ago today, 329 innocent people, including 280 Canadians, were killed when a bomb exploded on Air India Flight 182. On the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history, we remember the lives taken by violent extremism. — Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 23, 2024 What happened on June 23, 39 years ago, and afterward? We explain. What is the Kanishka bombing case? On June 23, 1985, a bomb exploded aboard Air India Flight 182 flying from Montreal in Canada to London, from where it was scheduled to go to New Delhi. It was a Boeing 747 wide-body jumbo, christened Emperor Kanishka. The bomb was in a suitcase that had arrived in Toronto from Vancouver on a different flight, and had been transferred to Air India Flight 181 in Toronto. This was Kanishka, which first went from Toronto to Montreal, and then took off for London as Flight 182. The bomb exploded above the Atlantic Ocean in Irish airspace when the aircraft was cruising at 31,000 feet. All 329 people on board — including 268 Canadians, many of whom were of Indian origin, 27 Britons, and 24 Indians — were killed. About an hour before Kanishka went down, a second bomb had gone off inside the terminal building in Tokyo’s Narita airport. This bomb too, had arrived from Vancouver — in a bag that was checked on to a Canadian Pacific Airlines flight. The bag was intended to be placed in another Air India flight, AI 301, headed to Bangkok and onward to Delhi. The bomb went off as it was being transferred to the aircraft at Narita, killing two Japanese baggage handlers. Investigations established that the two bombings were related — and together, they came to be known as the “Kanishka case”. Who was responsible for the attacks? Canadian and Indian investigations concluded the bombings were planned and executed by Sikh separatists based in Canada, working under the instructions of militants who were active in Punjab. The investigators said the bombings had been carried out by the Babbar Khalsa as revenge for Operation Blue Star, the Indian Army operation in the summer of 1984 to flush out militants led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The investigations revolved around three main accused: Vancouver businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik, Ajaib Singh Bagri, a mill worker from British Columbia, and Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician and auto mechanic from Duncan, British Columbia. All three were Canadian citizens. What happened during the investigations and trial? Reyat was arrested in February 1988 from Coventry in the United Kingdom, where he had moved with his family. He was accused of having procured parts for making the bombs, and supplying them to be planted on both aircraft. Reyat implicated Talwinder Singh Parmar, who headed a faction of the Babbar Khalsa militant outfit. However, Parmar was discharged, following which he left Canada and arrived in India. In 1992, he was killed in a shootout with Punjab Police in Phillaur. Police claimed that he had confessed to having masterminded the Kanishka bombing. Malik and Bagri were arrested in October 2000. Malik was allegedly associated with the Babbar Khalsa, and used to be a close associate of Parmar. They were charged with 329 counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Air India bombing, and with murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy in connection with the Narita bombing. Their trial began in April 2003. Reyat was made a prosecution witness against Malik and Bagri, but he said nothing that would implicate them. Both men were acquitted in March 2005. The judge said that the evidence against them had fallen “markedly short” of the threshold for conviction, and that the main witnesses were not credible. On July 14, 2022, a masked shooter killed Malik in Surrey, British Columbia. Reyat, who was the only person to have been convicted of the crime, spent some years in prison on various charges, and finally walked free in 2016. The investigation was severely criticised. Justice Ian Josephson of the British Columbia Supreme Court revealed that over 100 potentially damning recordings from Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) wiretaps on the suspects and other witnesses had been destroyed during the investigation. A 4,000-page, five-volume report of a Canadian commission of inquiry titled “A Canadian Tragedy” stated that a “cascading series of errors” by the government, RCMP, and CSIS allowed the bombing to take place. This explainer draws on two earlier explainers published on July 15, 2022. Read them here and here.
