Air India bombing victims remembered
Memorial service in Stanley Park pays tribute to the 331 who lost their lives 33 years ago
Ranbir Bhinder recalled Saturday how his entire family was “shattered” by the 1985 Air India bombing that left his pilot brother Satwinder dead.
Bhinder, who is visiting from India, attended his first memorial to commemorate the 331 victims of the Air-India bombings 33 years ago.
“The 23rd of June 1985, as you all know, shattered the lives of hundreds of families and ours was one of them,” Bhinder said, standing in front of the stone wall that bears the name of his brother and the other victims of Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack.
“This really did shatter us and really for a few years — nobody could really think of getting into an airliner,” he said, adding that now eight others in the family is pilots. “His son his now again a pilot with Air India.”
Bhinder was among dozens of family members, politicians and supporters who attended the annual event.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix, whose wife Renee Saklikar lost her aunt and uncle in the bombing, said the flags were flying half mast at the B.C. legislature to remember the victims.
Particularly tragic was the loss of 82 children on the flight — many on their way to India to visit relatives at the end of the school year.
The B.C. perpetrators of the attack “knew there would be a lot of children on the plane and they acted anyway,” Dix said.
“This is mass murder. This is child murder. This is without conscience, without dignity, without honour of any kind. So reflect on that loss today,” he said.
Air India Flight 182 exploded off the coast of Ireland when a B.C.-made bomb detonated in the cargo hold. All 329 aboard died. Another B.C.-made bomb exploded in a suitcase at Tokyo’s Narita airport as it was being transferred to another Air India flight. Two baggage handlers were killed.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge and a public inquiry determined the bombings were carried out by the B.C. Babbar Khalsa, headed by former Burnaby mill worker Talwinder Singh Parmar. Parmar was killed by Indian police before being charged in Canada.
Three of his associates, Ripudaman Singh Malik, Ajaib Singh Bagri and Inderjit Singh Reyat were charged in the bombing plot. Malik and Bagri were acquitted and Reyat pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Air India bombing. He was earlier convicted in the Narita bombing.
Former premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who was once viciously beaten by a Sikh extremist, said what is disturbing is that some supporters of Parmar and other Air India suspects have continued to profess their innocence despite a mountain of evidence in the case.
And the suspects are being glorified as martyrs at some temples and events attended by politicians, Dosanjh said.
“If we can take one pledge, I would ask the politicians across this country to stop hob-knobbing with those who glorify or support terror, implicitly or explicitly, and do everything possible to make sure that Canada is never home to a terrorist act like this every again,” he said to applause.
Perviz Madon, who lost husband Sam in the bombing, echoed Dosanjh’s comments, saying it was disturbing to see some sympathetic to the bombers with political support.
“The politicians need to stop attending events where they are glorifying these guys who have become martyrs who are terrorists. Please stop doing that. You are giving them a platform,” she pleaded.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said that Canada let the victims down by not preventing the attack when there had been repeated warnings that Air India would be targeted.
“Currently only one person has been brought to justice and there are those who still walk free among us,” Sajjan said. “The investigation will not be completed until those have been brought to justice.”
Retired RCMP deputy commissioner Gary Bass, who was in charge of the Air-India investigation for years, said there are still people in the community who have information that could help the ongoing criminal case.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” Bass said. “And there are a lot of people across this country and in other countries who have information about this horrendous crime that they’ve never shared. It’s time that the did.”