Air India confession probed

Ottawa: The head of the Air India inquiry wants to know more about a claim the suspected ringleader of a 1985 bomb plot that claimed 329 lives admitted his role in the attack to Indian police before they killed him.
Former Supreme Court justice John Major said yesterday he's not drawing conclusions yet about the purported confession by Talwinder Singh Parmar. But Major intends to pursue the matter when hearings resume in the fall, in the hope of clearing the air.
"It falls under the terms of reference (of the inquiry) so we don't really have an option," he said in an interview with CP.
"We have to find out what it's about, to the extent we can, and either decide that it's something relevant and important, or something that is not credible. There's no way of knowing until you hear and see what's going on."
The Indian magazine Tehelka reported on the weekend that Harmail Singh Chandi, a former Indian police officer, has confirmed that Parmar was interrogated after his capture in 1992 -- and that written statements and audio tapes of the sessions still exist.
The official story has always been that Parmar died in a shootout with police. But his family and other sources have long contended he was captured alive, interrogated under torture, and only then put to death by his captors.
Sarabjit Singh of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, which has investigated the affair, told Tehelka he believes that senior police officials ordered Parmar's execution because, during the course of his confession, he implicated another man who turned out to be an Indian government agent within the Sikh separatist movement.
That man is alleged to be Lakhbir Singh Brar, a former head of the International Sikh Youth Federation who has never been prosecuted in connection with the Air India bombing.
31/07/07 Jim Brown/CP/London Free Press, Canada

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