RCMP let Air India bombers escape: Report

Vancouver: RCMP investigators chose to let the real masterminds behind the Air India bombing escape, a new report on the terrorist attack by the Punjab Human Rights Organization says.
The report claims that members of the International Sikh Youth Federation are "the real culprits" behind the June 23, 1985, terrorist attack that left 329 people dead.
Organization chairman, Ajit Singh Bains, says in the document that RCMP officials knew who was responsible and "rather than taking them into custody, the accused were given discreet hints that they should leave Canada and were allowed to escape."
The RCMP fired back Thursday, saying the report's suggestion that Canadian police tipped off suspects is "outrageous."
"This statement is false and misleading," Sgt. Tim Shields said. "There is no credible evidence or basis upon which to support such an outrageous claim."
The group, which testified at the Air India inquiry in Ottawa last year, refused to give their report or supporting "evidence" to the RCMP, despite attempts by Canadian investigators to meet with the organization in India last month.
The report says the real mastermind of the bombing was ISYF co-founder Lakhbir Singh Brar, who made a failed refugee claim in Canada and was later deported.
But the RCMP told the Air India inquiry that Brar was ruled out as a suspect after considerable investigation.
Brar is also virtually absent in the logs of wiretapped conversations Talwinder Singh Parmar, who many allege was behind the attack, had with others in the weeks before and after the bombing.
The report says the PHRO's team of investigators met the real killers and "surprisingly, those people are openly taking responsibility and are claiming that the crash of the Air India Flight 182 was not a wrong act, but a great victory."
The report also said Brar is the man who accompanied Parmar and convicted bombmaker Inderjit Singh Reyat to the woods on Vancouver Island to do a test bombing on June 4, 1985.
Agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service were watching at the time and never identified Brar as the third person, despite his identity being widely known by law enforcement in 1985.
04/12/08 Kim Bolan/Canada.com, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Dec 2008, Foreign Dec 2008, NACIL Dec 2008, Safety Dec 2008