MUMBAI, India – “Khalistan Zindabad, Hindustan Murdabad,” “Kill Modi… politics“ were the cries ringing out in my ears as I crossed the 14th street entrance of the National Press Club, Washington DC last week, where as part of my North American speaking tour, I addressed the American media, on “Kanishka, Khalistan, and terrorism.” I ran into this ISI-sponsored Khalistani protest, waving Pakistani and Khalistani flags, not actually for my benefit, but for the Indian congregation of MPs who were addressing the media on Operation Sindoor, led by Dr. Shashi Tharoor at the same venue, later that day.
My thoughts flashed back to 40 years ago this very month, when the Air India Kanishka was blown up en route to London from Toronto, as it destroyed my entire world, orphaning me, then still a teenager.
This is a tragedy that the world forgot, that Canada avoided, and India deliberately ignored for almost 40 long years. Three hundred thirty-one of our loved ones passed away in the twinkle of an eye to the dastardly explosion of terrorist bombs.
A tragedy that could have been avoided had the Canadian intelligence and other agencies not ignored the alarm bells and warnings, or paid heed to the Indian and American warnings, or had Pierre Trudeau and Canada acceded to the almost 29 Indian extradition requests for Talwinder Singh Parmar since 1982.
Kanishka is that terrorist bombing that became a pawn in the hands of political masters in India, who refused to recognize, acknowledge, or even consider building a memorial to our dead, too afraid to hurt Akali or Khalistani sentiments, for far too long, unable to balance the pogrom with the carnage and tragedy of Kanishka 1985.
When the world speaks of air disasters, they speak of 9/11, Lockerbie, Tenerife, TWA, KAL, MAS, Iran Air, and Air France, but few remember that sandwiched in between all of them was Air India 182 Kanishka, it is even today, the world’s deadliest Aircraft bombing, and it was, until 9/11, the worst act of aviation terror known to man.
The 2001 Angus Reid survey revealed that four out of five Canadians were unaware of the Air India bombing. I’m pretty certain that 99 out of 100 people in India don’t even remember it.
For the families of Air India 182, Kanishka, we are a race that the world forgot, of an Indian flag carrier who no one cared about, for which no memorial exists in India, even today. We, families, have spent 40 years fighting for justice and seeking a voice at every high table in the world. It is a journey that I undertake on our pilgrimage for justice, truth, and recognition of the sacrifices made by those whom we lost and the truth we hope will be found.
June 12, 1985, was when I last said goodbye to my entire family, as they left for Canada on a trip that, ironically, I was to take as well, but was stymied by my failure at my 12th standard and stayed behind for revaluation.
Little did I know then that it would be the last time that I ever saw my beloved family.
Less than 12 days later, I got a call that took me to Cork to identify my beloved family, a teenager orphaned and scarred by the cruel act of a bunch of madmen; I flew off that very day. Landing in London that first night, the horrors began, with us having to evacuate the hotel at 3 am in the cold rain because of a bomb threat from the same Khalistanis. Shaken, we finally landed in Cork the next day.
The scene at the Cork hospital was one of a war-torn battlefield, as the fog of war lifted each evening, each side counting their dead. Like all families, I waited daily at Cork Hospital after the Naval ships brought in bodies and, in some cases, body parts for the horrific Interpol identification process by each of us. As a young 17-year-old, I underwent this ordeal for 23 days until the Navy gave up their search; I returned heartbroken to London. On the 24th day, however, a 131st body was suddenly discovered, and I was called back to Cork to identify Sylvia and take her home to Mumbai for her last rites.
The tragedy that families felt at the bombing was surpassed only by the cold rebuff by governments in Canada and India to the scale and the nature of the conspiracy. There was little attempt to reach out to families or for the Indian or Canadian governments even to address the issue, let alone investigate it.
To imagine the scale of the conspiracy back then, try and comprehend how a rag-tag terrorist outfit, funded by the ISI, had built and placed two suitcase bombs from Vancouver, BC, via CP Air, onto two Air India Jumbo jets, 10,000 miles apart, triggered to blow up at almost the same time across the earth, having tested it in the Vancouver woods. This was a time when mobile telephones, the Internet, GPS, or remote-control bombs did not exist. We still booked trunk calls and used inland letters and never had Internet. Had both flights not been delayed, AI-182 would have exploded at Heathrow and AI-301 at Narita, causing untold mayhem and death at two of the world’s largest airports; that was their goal.
A year is a long time in politics. By the time the first anniversary arrived in 1986, dignitaries and ministers had gathered at Ahakista, Cork, to unveil the memorial and participate in a multi-faith prayer ceremony. Cabinet ministers made promises aplenty from the Canadian and Indian governments, but it was only the Irish who kept their promise of building this beautiful memorial near the Atlantic Ocean, where the aircraft went down within a year.
The struggle of the families to get answers from a silent RCMP and the Canadian government, or a stoic Indian Government, was akin to squeezing blood from a stone. It is noteworthy that for the first 6 months, the Canadians tried even to avoid the mention that AI-182 was brought down by a bomb, and said so before the committee of Justice B.N.Kirpal (later CJI of Supreme Court) whilst hesitating to participate fully in the Indian Government inquiry.
This was clearly a bomb by Khalistani terrorists that blew up the AI-182 Kanishka. In fact, it was Justice Kripal’s thesis in Sept 1985 that somehow the bombing in Narita Tokyo and Ireland were connected, but he could not confirm, as his remit was limited to the Kanishka only, and they had no access to the Tokyo investigations.
The Gulf War came and went, and the monk-like silence from the Indian and Canadian sides was deafening. Families wrote to both governments, but the tragedy of Air India 182 was like a mirage in the desert. It took more than a decade and a half for the RCMP to act in the matter, and it was not until October 27, 2000, that charges were finally laid in the case.
It is said that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold. Just as Pearl Harbour changed the face of World War II, 9/11 changed the attitude to terrorism the world over; it changed our universe, and in many perverse ways, had Mohammed Atta not tried to flatten New York, the RCMP and CSIS in Canada may never have moved beyond that stage. The US and Global outrage over 9/11 made everybody stand up and take note. India and Canada already had their “9/11 moment“ years earlier, but Canada had dropped the ball on preventing it and later prosecuting it, deliberately or not, we shall never know.
It had taken 15 long years before the RCMP finally laid the criminal charges. During those 15 years, most of the Khalistani conspirators had either run away to other countries or gone underground. The victims’ families had written 100s of letters and petitions to Canadian and Indian Premiers and MPs to look into the matter. I had personally raised the issue with at least four Indian Prime Ministers and met countless ministers to no avail; Indian politicians were too scared of upsetting the Sikh sentiments when it was always clear that all Sikhs are not Khalistanis, in fact, very far from it.
The Sikh community is perhaps the pride of India in every field and walk of life, but the Khalistani terrorists are the vilest, bloodthirsty criminals one can find; this was a fact that escaped the notice of successive Indian and Canadian governments, who, in particular, literally paid obeisance to the Khalistanis.
The victims’ families were lost between a rock and a hard place; the Canadian government had ignored them because they were Indian, and the Indian government had pretended as though this dastardly act had not even taken place and it was a foreign event.
The India of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s was a soft state, and even now (Pahalgam aside), we do not always demonstrate the resolve that is needed. Had this not been so, the Khalistanis would have thought 100 times before attacking our temples overseas and in our land.
The 1990s saw the Khalistani movement burn itself out, and between Julio Ribeiro and KPS Gill, they ensured that what was left of the Khalistani movement was destroyed. On one such early morning raid in the village of Kang Arayan, the Punjab police, acting on a tip-off, tracked down the dreaded terrorist Talwinder Singh Parmar, crossing over from Pakistan along with his ISI handlers, and a fierce gun battle ensued. Parmar and ISI agents Intekhab Zia and Habibullah were among the six killed that day as they snuck into Punjab; this was October 15, 1992. Pakistan acknowledged their citizens but called them tourists, who were armed with rocket launchers, AK-47s, and grenades.
Almost a decade later, the Canadian Crown prosecution labored to prepare its case against the conspirators, with evidence that had been collected by multiple agencies, even as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 9/11 had already begun its hearings. Ironically, the most crucial evidence and leads regarding Kanishka had come from Japanese investigators, who found a piece of the same Sanyo transistor embedded in the wall at Narita that matched the transistor module identified by Justice Kirpal’s committee. Interestingly, only 200 of these radios had ever been made, and all were shipped to Vancouver, BC. The buyers were tracked down, and the receipts and tapes were found in Reyat’s garage.
The RCMP and CSIS had interviewed and prepared scores of witnesses ranging from Tara Singh Hayer to the ticketing agents to the airport staff and even to the woman who was in a relationship with Bagri, whose car was used to ferry the bombs to the airport. Yet by the time the charges were filed and the trial came along, most of the witnesses were either assassinated or disappeared or recanted. Tara Singh Hayer, the Canadian Journalist-editor, who had given sworn testimony that Bagri confessed in London that they had bombed the planes, despite being under RCMP protective detail, was killed in cold blood at his home.
The RCMP and the Crown did snare the small fry Reyat, who accepted the plea bargain for making the bombs and also offered to testify in the trial against Bagri and Malik but later recanted out of fear, for which he served almost 17 years for perjury.
As one who flew from Mumbai to Vancouver to attend the Criminal trials, it was a frustratingly painful process, watching witness by witness fall by the wayside over those few years. In the final 3 days, sitting barely 15 feet from the two killers, awaiting the verdict, I watched them smirk and giggle in the courtroom, fully secure in the knowledge that they had eliminated every witness or piece of evidence that would tie them back to this dastardly crime.
It was also astounding to note the judge rewarding the accused for every witness they had threatened. Some of Justice Josephson’s comments and mistakes in the order would make a grown man blush. As veteran journalist and Khalistan expert Terry Milewski writes in the foreword to “On Angels Wings- beyond the bombing of Air India 182.”
“Justice was denied. Witnesses were intimidated or murdered. Wiretaps were inexplicably erased. Crucial evidence was discarded or ruled inadmissible on grounds that often seemed bizarre. A stinging sense of betrayal left some of the family members barely able to speak.“
“Canadian authorities had bungled the job a second time. First, they failed to prevent the bombing despite vivid and repeated warnings. Then, they failed to deliver justice.”
Had this been an Indian Court and judge, many would have quickly rushed to say that it was a prejudiced judgment, or alleged “favors,” or even heard the crude insult “bik gaya,” however, this was Canada and the law was flawed, but it was supposed to be majestic. The judgment was full of mistakes and legal and factual errors.
That day, we were all crushed; our families had died again, this time murdered by the Canadian Justice system, and I said so across TV Channels in rage. To watch an open-and-shut case be shut forever and watch the prime accused drive off in their swanky limousines was a pain too deep.
We families began our campaign for resolution to undo the wrongs of the criminal trial but were faced with the principle of double jeopardy. The Crown counsel had decided not to pursue an appeal, given that it was witnesses who had turned hostile. To this day, I find that inexplicable that an appeal was not preferred. I got the feeling that Canada just wanted to sandbag the entire event and, forget those months of madness of 1985 and bury their heads.
A few months later, the families commemorated a mournful 20th anniversary in Cork, Ireland, that brought the President of Ireland, the Prime Minister of Canada, Paul Martin, the opposition leader Mr. Stephen Harper, and Mr. Prithiviraj Chauhan, then cabinet minister in Manmohan Singh’s PMO, to Ahakista Ireland, to pay their respects to the departed families of Air India 182.
The anger of the families was palpable, and we demanded answers from Paul Martin and Stephen Harper. I got an opportunity to confront Martin and Harper, reminding them that the 329 souls in the ocean behind us were waiting for answers. Even Chauhan was silent, facing the fury of the families, and all of them gave us what were hollow promises of the last 20 years.
However, Harper, it was in the following year, after winning the elections, appointed a Crown commission into the Air India bombing, under the auspices of retired Supreme Court Justice John Major, to look into the mistakes that were made without reopening or reexamining the criminal verdict.
The inquiry, announced with fanfare, turned out to be a damp squib, with Justice Major shorn even of the power of Subpoena and being fed redacted and censored letters and evidence. Justice Major himself protested and threatened to resign publicly before Harper ordered uncensored secret documents to be released and the power of summoning witnesses under oath.
I was fortunate to be one of the few who obtained individual standing in the case, which stretched from June 2006 to March 2010. It opened the eyes of the world to many truths that CSIS and the Canadian Government had been watching Parmar and company since December 1984, and the agent in charge had requested wiretaps since then on the homes of Parmar and other conspirators, which eventually began in March of 1985 – a full 90 days before the bombing took place.
There were recordings and transcripts of phone calls planning these bombings, and there were witnesses who had come forward to forewarn the RCMP of this conspiracy, all of which was taken with a pinch of salt. Those recordings were also carefully destroyed, leaving behind only the transcripts. The Indian government itself had sent out more than 31 Aide memoires to the Canadians warning that an Air India flight was being targeted by the Khalistanis, which were handed over to the RCMP, through the foreign office. The June 1st telex of Air India had warned that a bombing was imminent on its only weekly flight and Top Security was essential. The US Secret Service had uncovered a plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi that same month, on his visit to Washington to inaugurate the festival of India with President Ronald Reagan, and had visited Parmar in Vancouver less than 15 days before the bombing, to warn him against any misadventure, just as the FBI had uncovered evidence of a bombing plot. The CSIS agents had seen Parmar and others test fire a bomb in the woods outside Vancouver 10 days prior, yet no one had acted. The failure of airport security in bomb detection in both Vancouver and Toronto was shocking, to say the least.
The evidence and documents that came before the Commission shockingly pointed to the fact that at least four agencies, CSIS, RCMP, FBI, and Secret Service, knew of a major plot to bomb the Air India aircraft and the Indian government’s warnings over the previous five months. It also became apparent that both the Canadians and the Americans had moles within the Khalistan setup, who could not be exposed. Yet the system slept and permitted 331 innocents to die on that 23rd day of June in 1985.
Appearing before the John Major Enquiry in Ottawa, I placed my thoughts and lamented the enormous failures of the RCMP and CSIS and the rivalry that caused the deaths of my family and 328 others, the systemic failures of policing and covert racism, and how both the governments had abandoned the families of Kanishka, and Had this been a plane full of white men, justice would have been delivered in a year.
Justice John Major in 2010 released his report in 5 volumes that covered the gross and grave negligence by Canadian authorities that caused the terrorist attack on the Air India 747. The systematic failure of the Intelligence apparatus, coupled with the racial negligence, had resulted in acquittals of the prime accused.
By then, peace had returned to the Punjab, and the politicians of India had virtually slept on this tragedy, closing their eyes to the growing storms of ISI-backed Khalistan terror outfits that were growing in other countries. The 2021 Pew research report indicated that 95 percent of Sikhs were happy and proud to be Indian and rejected the idea of Khalistan.
However, in the 40 years since that dark day in June, there has barely been a mention of the tragedy by successive governments, other than perfunctory plaudits in tiny newspaper columns, and the one-minute silence observed in Indian Parliament in 2024 was only after Canada had observed a minute for Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another ISI trained Khalistani extremist who was killed in Canadian Khalistani gang wars.
The value of human life in India appears to be cheap, with hundreds dying of various causes daily. However, India cannot forget those who were felled by the Khalistani bombing of Air India 182, which remains, to this date, the worst ever bombing in aviation history, or those thousands of Hindus and Sikhs who were butchered by Khalistanis during the turmoil in Punjab. India has been unable to balance the horrors of the Sikh pogrom of 1984 with the gruesome Kanishka bombing and the killings of innocents, but it’s time to man up.
The failure of India to bottle up the Khalistani genie overseas has, in the last 40 years, seen them emerge as a major politico-terror outfit with offices in the capitals of the world.
The Khalistanis, who worked silently for almost a decade after the John Major report, have been propagating a revisionist history in Canada and across the Western world, focused on cruelly and ludicrously suggesting that the Air India 182 bombing was the handiwork of the Indian government. Emboldened and well-financed, they, along with Pakistan, have begun a global campaign to besmirch India and educate Gen Z about their version of history. Some Khalistani-affiliated Canadian MPs even sought a fresh inquiry into the Air India Bombing to pin it on India, which was almost like stupidly saying that 9/11 was an American conspiracy.
Some years ago, on my annual pilgrimage to Ahakista to the beautiful memorial for Kanishka, I got an epiphany. I heard my Dad and family say that I had not done enough to spread the truth. As I prayed, sending diyas into the Atlantic, I literally felt the 331 souls cry out that their truth should not be obscured in politics as they waited for justice and their moment of truth. I returned and quit my Airline job a few years early to spread the truth.
It has become my mission to debunk these theories, whether it is through my books, or traveling around the world, speaking at various forums, setting out the truth for all to hear, as the Kanishka families appeal for a memorial and a learning center in India and Canada, to warn the world that Khalistan terrorism is the other side of the coin of Islamist terror, both born and bred in the same ISI Pakistani stable.
Whether it is 26-11 or Parliament Attacks, Malegaon or the 1992 bomb blasts, Uri or Pulwama or Balakote or the many other terror attacks across India, isn’t it time that India recognizes terrorism for what it is and acknowledges it? Canada has built four civilian memorials across its country dedicated to the Kanishka bombing, as has Ireland. India is yet to recognize the world’s worst air bombing.
Three hundred twenty-nine people, with 82 children under the age of 12, died on Kanishka, including my baby sister Sandeeta; let that sink in as you sip your cup of tea reading this.
Sanjay Lazar
Sanjay Lazar is an Analyst, Lawyer, Author & commentator, who writes on International relations, Aviation and law. He is @sjlazars on @x.
