India agent warned Ottawa

Maloy Krishna Dhar warned the Canadian government.
"In April 1985 we got specific information that the International Sikh Youth Federation and the Babbar Khalsa -- both banned organizations in Canada now -- were planning to attack the Indian interests in Canada," says Dhar, who was the head of intelligence at the Indian High Commission in Ottawa. "We sent this information to the Canadian government in writing.
"Subsequently when we got information that Sikh militant leaders Talwinder Singh Parmar and Inderjit Singh Reyat were testing explosives in rural B.C., the information was conveyed to (Doug) French at the External Affairs verbally."
But that June, Air India Flight 182, en route to New Delhi from Toronto and Montreal, was downed off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people. Parmar, who's now dead, is the suspected mastermind behind the bombing and Reyat pleaded guilty in 2003 to manslaughter.
More than two decades after his original warnings, Dhar, now 70, is the first former Indian official invited to testify at the Air India Public inquiry.
Dhar says there was "no point man" in the RCMP at that time dealing with Indian diplomats.
"But I did brief some RCMP officers about this information and sadly, if they haven't kept any record of our warnings, it is their problem and not mine," Dhar says.
"We, of course, presumed the Canadian civil aviation authorities (Transport Canada) had taken proper measures to tighten the security of Air India planes flying in and out of Canada to the Indian destinations," Dhar says as he keeps tabs on the inquiry from India. "But they were not doing it as it is now amply proved."
His testimony may have been shocking if not for the bombshells that have already come out of the inquiry.
Ontario Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman, who was at the time the director of security and intelligence for the foreign service, testified earlier this month he saw a classified document recording an electronic intercept that Air India would be hit the weekend of June 22-23, 1985.
A former Quebec provincial policeman told the inquiry the tragedy could have prevented if only the plane had not taken off before he and his sniffer dog had a chance to check all the baggage and go through the plane.
A top CSIS terrorism expert testified he predicted the bombing just days before.
23/05/07 Ajit Jain/Toronto Sun, Canada

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Categories: Air India May 2007, Foreign May 2007, Safety May 2007