Indian government agents targeted Sikh separatists

Indian government agents were flashing large amounts of cash around Vancouver in the months before the Air India bombing to get Sikh separatists to switch their allegiance, the Air India inquiry heard Tuesday.
Former Vancouver Police officer Don McLean, then part of the Indo-Canadian Liaison Team, testified that he was repeatedly told by sources that the Indian spies offered up to $10,000 to pro-Khalistan newspapers to get them to reject their position and adopt a moderate stance.
“The Indian government would send their agents in and they would have $10,000 to use to change the paper.”
McLean said it was obvious seeing some of the community media outlets when they had been approached because their views would shift dramatically from week to week.
The two-person Vancouver team had wide-ranging responsibility for everything from domestic problems within the community to temple elections.
But after Amritsar’s Golden Temple was raided by the Indian Army in June 1984, McLean said his team got more and more intelligence about violent Sikh separatists assaulting and intimidating moderates who spoke out against the Khalistan cause.
McLean testified the separatists “used threats and force in an attempt to accomplish that aim.”
Still, he managed to gather intelligence on some key militants including suspected Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, which he passed on to both RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
In fact, it was McLean who heard through his sources around June 9, 1985 - just two weeks before the deadly bombing - that Parmar had warned congregants at the Malton temple not to fly on Air India because it would be dangerous.
After the bombing, McLean helped both the RCMP and CSIS with the investigation.
But he said he felt marginalized as the “token munie” – the only municipal police officer working on the case – and he soon went back to his work in Vancouver.
He criticized the way the RCMP was using standards methods, such as door-knocking, to try to get information from members of a community that feared police.
29/05/07 Kim Bolan/CanWest News Service/Canada.com, Canada

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

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