New suspects to be named in Air India bombing

A controversial human rights group in Punjab plans to release a report this weekend identifying new suspects it claims have confessed to the 1985 Air India bombing.
Sarabjit Singh Verka, of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, says group investigators travelled the world, interviewing more than 100 people in several countries with knowledge of the bombing.
Verka said they found more than one suspect "from the movement" who have admitted they were involved in the June 23, 1985, bombing plot centred in B.C. that killed 329 people aboard Flight 182 over the North Atlantic and two baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Japan.
"The movement" is a reference to the struggle for Khalistan, a separate Sikh nation some want carved from India's Punjab.
Verka said his group has been trying unsuccessfully to share its findings with the RCMP investigators from the Air India Task Force who are currently in Punjab interviewing potential witnesses.
The Canadian police, he said, are refusing to meet with the organization except with Indian officials present - something Verka says is unacceptable.
Verka wouldn't say more about the report or those purported to be the new suspects, but said the research paper will be publicly released "for the victims' families."
"We are having a meeting this weekend and then we will release it," he said in a telephone interview from Punjab.
Verka provided copies of e-mails between himself and task force investigator, Insp. Bart Blachford, about the request for a meeting.
In his e-mail, Blachford says that a senior official of the Punjab group, Justice Ajit Singh Bains, and his son, Rajvinder, had agreed to meet the RCMP along with India's Central Bureau of Investigation.
"The RCMP received permission from the Indian Govt. to meet with the PHRO, in the presence of the CBI. Initially you and your father were in agreement to meet with the RCMP in Chandigarh under those conditions," Blachford wrote.
"In a followup call with Cpl. [Dan] Sandhar and after speaking with your father, you and your father decided that you would not meet with us under the condition that the CBI be present at the meeting. Nor would you meet with us to discuss the situation. We have advised the CBI that no meeting will take place at your request." Blachford also said the RCMP would still like a copy of the report "in order to advance our investigation into the bombing of Kanishka," which is the name Air India gave the doomed airliner.
But Verka told The Sun that the human rights organization has lost faith in the RCMP because of its close relationship with Indian authorities and will give them nothing.In a subsequent e-mail to Blachford, the group denied there had been an agreement to meet with the CBI present.
The PHRO, which has maintained close separatist ties since it began in 1985, has stirred controversy in connection with the Air India probe before.
20/11/08 Kim Bolan/Vancouver Sun/Canada.com, Canada

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Air India to suspend Himachal Pradesh flight

Shimla: State-owned carrier Air India will suspend its operations in Himachal Pradesh from Saturday, officials said in Shimla on Thursday. The decision is likely to hit the tourism industry of the state.
According to officials, Air India authorities have decided to suspend the lone flight between Delhi and Kullu from November 22. The flight operates twice a week.
The flight was launched March 19 this year when the new terminal building was inaugurated at Bhuntar near Kullu by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
"It's strange, given that at the time of launching the flight (Delhi-Kullu-Delhi), Patel assured the state government Air India would increase flights to seven days a week," president of the Travel Agents Association of Kullu Subhash Sharma said.
He said the suspension of the lone flight will affect the tourism industry.
Manali-based hotelier Tek Ram Thakur said: "The suspension of the Air India flights would mean monopoly business for private carriers. The state government should take up the issue with the central government."
20/11/08 IANS/Sify

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Punjab group to release list of new suspects in Air India bombing

Vancouver: A controversial human rights group in India's Punjab region plans to release a report this weekend identifying new suspects it claims have confessed to the 1985 Air India bombing.
Sarabjit Singh Verka, of the Punjab Human Rights Organization, says group investigators travelled the world, interviewing more than 100 people in several countries with knowledge of the bombing.
Verka said they found multiple suspects "from the movement" who have admitted they were involved in the June 23, 1985, bombing plot centred in B.C. that killed 329 people aboard Flight 182 over the North Atlantic and two baggage handlers at Narita Airport in Japan. "The movement" is a reference to the struggle for Khalistan, a separate Sikh nation some want carved from Punjab.
Verka said his group has been trying unsuccessfully to share its findings with the RCMP investigators from the Air India Task Force who are now in Punjab interviewing potential witnesses.
Canadian police, he said, are refusing to meet with the organization except with Indian officials present - something Verka says is unacceptable.
Verka wouldn't say more about the report or those purported to be the new suspects, but said the research paper will be publicly released "for the victims' families."
"We are having a meeting this weekend and then we will release it," he said in a telephone interview from Punjab.
Verka provided copies of e-mails between himself and task force investigator Insp. Bart Blachford about the request for a meeting.
In his e-mail, Blachford says that a senior official of the Punjab group, Justice Ajit Singh Bains, and his son, Rajvinder, initially agreed to meet the RCMP along with India's Central Bureau of Investigation.
18/11/08 Kim Bolan/Canada.com, Canada

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Mounties might go home empty-handed

Amritsar: Five investigators of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) — who are in India in connections with the probe of June 1985 bombing of Air India’s 182 Kanishka flight, in which 329 persons were killed— might go home empty-handed.
The Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO), whose investigations had unraveled various facts regarding attack by the Punjab militants, has refused to meet the investigating team, which is at present staying in Delhi.
The RCMP was in Chandigarh last week to question Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) terrorists on death row for killing former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh.
The team, called the Air India Task Force (AITF), is headed by Sergeant Bart Blackford and was to question about 15 more persons. “We will not meet the investigators, as they have attached certain conditions, which include that during the meeting the CBI will sit along. We want direct dialogues with the RCMP,” said PHRO chairman Justice Ajit Singh Bains (retd). He said they have submitted their independent probe report to the Canadian government and now it was up to the RCMP to collect more evidence and witnesses.
Apart from Blackford, Mike Haney, Dan Sandhar, Joanne Baines and Bill Kalkat are part of the AITF team. The Canadian government has spent millions of dollars on investigation, but besides Inderjit Singh Reyat, who had made a confession, no conviction has taken place in the 23-year-old case.
Two other accused, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, were freed by the Canadian Supreme Court for want of “credible witnesses”.
19/11/08 Dharmendra Rataul/ExpressIndia

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Ten years later, justice eludes Hayer's family

It is now ten years since outspoken Indo-Canadian newspaper publisher Tara Singh Hayer was murdered, and still his family continues the search for justice.
The passage of time hasn't dulled the pain for the late publisher's son Dave Hayer and his family.
That's not just because their father was murdered. It's also because after 10-years, his killers are still eluding justice.
Tara Singh Hayer was gunned down in November 1998. He was putting the final touches on the latest edition of his Indo-Canadian newspaper, a publication that didn't waiver in its criticism of extremists trying to import terror to Canada.
While that dedication to principle ended up killing Hayer, his family says it would be easier to move on if those responsible had been punished.
The RCMP have an ongoing investigation. But so far, it hasn't yielded results.
Perhaps nowhere did Tara Singh Hayer's murder have more of an impact than at B.C. Supreme Court where it may have played a crucial role in the lack of justice for one of our country's most horrible crimes.
That crime was the Air India bombing. Hayer was set to be a witness in the trial, testifying against Ajab Singh Bagri, one of the men acquitted in the case.
"It could have been very, very compelling evidence. Of course it was lost His statements were not allowed to be entered as exhibits in that case and we'll never know what could have happened if he had been alive to testify," said Kim Bolan, a Vancouver Sun reporter, who has written extensively about Air India.
But Dave Hayer has tried to move beyond that. He's now focused on two things -- the need for justice - and the need for the public to not forget what his father died for.
"We have to make sure that our future generations also realize that we can't allow this to repeat, We can also make sure that we don't allow people to allow terrorism to come here," he said.
18/11/08 CTV British Columbia, Canada

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AI faces ground reality in US

New Delhi: With not many takers for the non-stop Mumbai- and Delhi-New York daily flights, Air India (AI) is parking its new Boeing 777 for over 12 hours at the US airport everyday.
“The airline’s decision to park the brand new aircraft, which arrives in New York early morning and takes off on return journey at 10pm the same day, for so many hours has stunned many,” a senior airline officer said.
“Keeping an aircraft idle for such a long time is considered suicidal in aviation industry,” an airline source said.
Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava, however, reasoned, “There is no option (but to park the aircraft in the US). Parking and route navigation fees at Indian airports are much higher than anywhere in the world.”
Bhargava agreed that the airline had a poor load factor, but said, “The load factor in US-bound flights is around 160 passengers everyday, which is quite good considering the prevailing market situation,” he said.
To offset the high operational cost, Air India tried to launch a daytime Toronto flight sometime ago but manpower shortage forced it to shelve the plan. “Starting such a flight would require more manpower in New York, which is not possible,” another airline official said. Air India has already stopped its US-bound flights from Kolkata and Ahmedabad, which were launched with great fanfare three months ago, due to a steep hike in operational cost.
19/11/08 Yogesh Kumar/Daily News & Analysis

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Air India inquiry report unlikely this year

Toronto: Canada’s John Major commission, which completed its inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing earlier this year, is unlikely to present its report this year. When the commission, headed by former Supreme Court chief justice John Major, wound up its work this February, it was expected to present the final report to the government in the autumn.
With no word yet from the commission, the report may now be presented only next year.
“But the commission never set a date for the release of its report. When we do have anything, we will let you know,” commission spokesman Michael Tansey told IANS.
He said the commission has only said that John Major (the inquiry head) is taking his time to go through all aspects of the report.
“Whenever we have anything, we will post on our web site,” said Tansey.
The commission investigated all aspects of the Air India bombing that killed 329 when the Air India flight 182 from Toronto to New Delhi was brought down by an explosion off the Irish coast June 23, 1985.
While the plot mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, who fled to India, was killed in a shootout in Punjab, the trial of other two suspects- Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik - ended in their acquittal in March 2005.
18/11/08 IANS/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Man flees home after Indian media disclose that he met with RCMP

Punjab resident Naudh Singh Thind thought he was doing the right thing by agreeing to meet the RCMP last week about his knowledge of one of the suspects in the Air India bombing.
Now, after his name was disclosed in the Indian media, the 30-year-old has been forced to flee his family home, fearing for his safety.
He told The Vancouver Sun that talking to the police was a "big blunder" that has led to him being falsely labelled a terrorist, a suspect in the 1985 bombing and a member of the Babbar Khalsa linked to the assassins of the state's former chief minister.
"I was only seven when Air India happened," a distraught Thind said in a telephone interview from India. "This has disrupted my life completely."
In fact, he only came in contact with the Surrey bombing suspect when the man spent time at a school where Thind was teaching in his native village of Rachhin, Punjab -- years after the Air India bombing.
The school's headmaster had a close relationship with the suspect, who has not been charged in the 1985 bombing that killed 329.
Thind met with the RCMP's Air India Task Force on Wednesday and by Thursday, his identity was all over the media across the Indian subcontinent and abroad.
"The RCMP had promised me to keep the matter confidential," Thind said. "By disclosing this matter means a threat to my life. I may be made target by militants at any time. You know what happened with Tara Singh Hayer [the Indo-Canadian Times publisher slain in Surrey in 1998]. If he can be targeted in such tight security, then who am I to escape?"
He also wonders who is responsible for his security now that word has leaked out that he talked to Canadian investigators.
He said his family is terrified and worries that no one will agree to marry him now. Even his gear manufacturing business is affected because clients don't want to talk to him on the phone, fearing it is bugged, he said.
17/11/08 Kim Bolan/Vancouver Sun, Canada

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Air India bomber's perjury trial delayed until May 2009

Vancouver: The only man convicted in the Air India bombing, Inderjit Singh Reyat, had his perjury trial adjourned Wednesday until next May.
Reyat's three-week trial was supposed to begin jury selection Jan. 12, with the trial expected to commence as soon as a jury was picked.
Prosecutors allege Reyat lied 27 times while testifying as a Crown witness against two co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri in September 2003.
That 19-month trial ended with acquittals for both in March 2005.
Reyat's lawyer, Ian Donaldson, told the B.C. Supreme Court on Wednesday that he's currently involved in a kidnapping trial that was supposed to be finished by January but is now expected to go until next March.
One of the problems, Donaldson said, is that much of the testimony at the trial of six accused kidnappers is in Cantonese and requires an interpreter.
"It's a slow pace," he explained, adding he has been Reyat's lawyer since he was charged with perjury and now it is too late for the accused to find another lawyer.
Special prosecutor Len Doust said it was unfortunate that the perjury trial had to be adjourned "but there's little we can do."
12/11/08 Neal Hall/Canwest News Service/Canada.com

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Canadian police arrive in India to probe 1985 airline bombing

Chandigarh: Five Canadian police officers are in India to investigate the Air India bombing.
Indian police say the RCMP team met the director-general of police of Punjab state Wednesday in the city of Chandigarh. Police spokesman A.P. Virdi says the Mounties plan to interview two Sikh separatists sentenced to death for killing the top elected official of Punjab in 1995.
Police suspect the men were linked to people thought to be involved in the Air India bombing.
The 1985 bombing of an Air India flight killed 329 people, most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin.
Only one person, Inderjit Singh Reyat, has been convicted in the case, but the RCMP has maintained the investigation remains active.
Reyat was convicted for his role in gathering materials for the bomb.
The bombing of the Toronto to London flight has been widely blamed on Sikh separatists who used British Columbia as a base for their independence campaign in northern India.
Two men charged in the attacks, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted of all charges in the bombing.
After the acquittals a public inquiry was ordered to review how authorities handled the case.
12/11/08 The Canadian Press

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Canadian police to question terrorists imprisoned in Chandigarh

Chandigarh: Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officials on Wednesday arrived at the high-security Burail jail here to interview two Babbar Khalsa terrorists in connection with the mid-air bombing of Air India's Kanishka flight in June 1985.
The RCMP officers will question the two terrorists, Jagtar Singh Hawara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, in the presence of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Chandigarh police officials.
Both terrorists are lodged in the prison after a local court here sentenced them to death last year for their involvement in the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995.
The Mounties are re-investigating the Kanishka bombing to arrive at fresh evidence to nail suspects acquitted in the case.
A court here has given permission to the RCMP team to interview the terrorists.
The RCMP had in January this year asked the security agencies here for help to interview 12 'witnesses' who it pointed out could have information regarding the Kanishka bombing, which left all 329 passengers on board the aircraft dead near the coast of Ireland. The flight had taken off from Toronto.
The RCMP team had Tuesday met top officials of the Punjab police, Chandigarh police and the CBI to seek help in interviewing certain terrorists who were in prisons in Chandigarh and Punjab. 12/11/08 IANS/Times of India

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Air India downgrades aircraft on Singapore route

Mumbai: National carrier Air India has downgraded aircraft it flies on Singapore and Bangkok routes. The airline cited a slump in the load factors on the routes as the reason for deployment of smaller aircraft.
Air India would now be using Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 type with a capacity of 122 seats instead of a 200-seater Airbus A310. This will result in reduction of capacity by 14 per cent on the route for the airline.
The move has saved Air India from cutting frequencies as it offers connectivity from different parts within the country to fly to Singapore and instead rationalise the route by cutting the number of the seats.
Incidentally, Singapore route was one of the cash cows for both the domestic and international carriers till the economic slump hit the industry. Recently, even Singapore Airlines, the Singapore flag-carrier, has been forced to slash frequencies on the route.
“We have reduced the number of the flights to-and-fro from Chennai and Bangalore as there was a dip in load factors on these routes. But Mumbai and Delhi are still holding for us,” said the spokesperson of Singapore Airlines. However, the Naresh Goyal-led private carrier, Jet Airways — which deploys a Boeing 737 and a Boeing 777 300ER on the route — said that the load factors for the airliner have held up to at least 70 per cent and they would not be reducing any capacity on the route.
10/11/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Acquitted Air India suspect drops suit against B.C.

Acquitted Air India suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik has dropped his suit against the B.C. government for malicious prosecution, in which he claimed he was only charged in the terrorist attack to advance the political career of Ujjal Dosanjh.
Malik's lawyer agreed to a consent dismissal order in B.C. Supreme Court Friday.
The B.C. government is continuing its legal bid to reclaim millions loaned to Malik for his successful defence team that won his 2005 acquittal in the Air India bombings.
Malik has now filed a new statement of defence in that case, taking out all references to Dosanjh, the Liberal MP for Vancouver South who was B.C. premier or attorney-general for much of the Air India investigation.
In his now-defunct countersuit, Malik had tried to suggest "the charges were laid at the instance of Mr. Dosanjh for personal and political gain."
He said the attorney-general colluded with Dosanjh and "falsely charged him [Malik] with a series of offences alleging his involvement in a conspiracy to commit murder and place bombs on an aircraft, all with full knowledge that it had no credible evidence of any such involvement."
Dosanjh said Sunday he was "pleased" the allegations were dropped.
"This never should have been done in the first please. I am pleased that they are rectifying the error," he said.
Meanwhile, the B.C. government has still received no repayment of the millions it loaned Malik. Last summer, the Vancouver businessman was ordered to repay the money by Oct. 30 regardless of the countersuit he had already filed for malicious prosecution.
09/11/08 Kim Bolan/Vancouver Sun/Canada.com, Canada

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Minor accident at AI flight, passengers safe

Mumbai: An Air India flight from Jeddah had a minor accident today while landing at Kozhikode airport as the aircraft's right wing tip hit the runway while landing, an Air India spokesperson said.
"All 159 passengers on board are safe and Air India engineers are assessing the damage to the aircraft," the spokesperson told PTI here today.
The incident occurred at 0915 hrs when the Air India flight 962 from Jeddah was landing at Kozhikode, the spokesperson added.
07/11/08 Press Trust of India

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NRI passenger tests positive for drugs

Mumbai: The NRI passenger who delayed Air India (AI)'s Mumbai-Paris-Newark flight on Thursday with his erratic behaviour has tested positive for cannabis, but his relatives say he suffers from claustrophobia.
On Friday, Mark Mahendra Sharma's aunt Nirmala Tara had come to meet him at the Sahar police station. She says he needs medical attention.
The police, however, differ. “Sharma's medical reports have come in. He had consumed cannabis and we are going to lodge a case against him under the NDPS Act,” says senior police inspector of Sahar police station Dilip Patil.
Air India's flight was delayed for three hours after Sharma sparked a scare on board. He made several trips to the toilet while the aircraft was taxiing for take-off; then, he stuffed his underwear in the commode. While doing so, his cellphone also fell into the toilet. An airhostess, who had been observing his behaviour, saw the cellphone and thought it was a bomb. The captain was alerted and he decided to abort takeoff.
Sharma had come to Mumbai 10 days back to celebrate Diwali and was staying with Tara at her Colaba residence. According to Tara, Sharma is a businessman in the US and stays with his parents. She says he suffers from hypertension and claustrophobia.
01/11/08 Navita Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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