NEW DELHI: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has decided to wind down the investigations of its Task Force into one of the world’s worst aviation bombings in 1985, which killed 329 people on board an Air India plane. The impacted families have registered their dissent. The Kanishka Foundation, which has been at the forefront in demanding justice for the victims, has protested the move in letters sent to the Canadian and Indian Prime Ministers and demanded that the investigations continue unhindered.
On June 23, 1985, a bomb detonated on AI 182, flying from Canada to India, causing the aircraft to crash in the Atlantic Ocean. There were 24 Indian and 268 Canadian citizens of Indian origin among those killed.
Chairman of the Kanishka Foundation, Sanjay Lazar, along with families of the victims, were present at a meeting at Toronto on September 12 where they were informed that they had no further information to pursue the case.
Lazar was a teenager when he lost his father, mother and younger sister to the tragedy. He told this newspaper that he had already written to PM Mark Carney and PM Narendra Modi, foreign ministers of both the countries, the RCMP and the Attorney generals of both Canada and that of British Columbia, that the investigation could not be stopped.
“I will take it up step by step, hoping that they will respond positively. Alternatively, there are steps that we victims’ families can take, under Canadian law, and we will be forced to adopt that. Many families are unanimous in their views about this,” he said.
Lazar repeatedly alleged that Indian families as well as Canadians of Indian origin felt they were discriminated against.
He also referred to a suggestion from the RCMP that if families provided them with fresh leads, they would be pursued. Expressing his shock over the implication, Lazar asked if the police could ask victims’ families for leads.
In a letter to PM Modi, the foundation pointed out that just two months ago, the Canadian Security Intelligence Services had for the first time, admitted that it was Khalistani separatists who bombed the aircraft.