London School of Economics now among lowranked British varsities
Bass was involved with the probe in different capacities since 1996, including being in charge of new investigations.
While the investigations continued, till date only bomb-maker Inderjit Singh Reyat has been convicted in connection with the tragedy. There was no response from the RCMP on a request for an update on the investigation.
There are at least three persons the investigators had leads on. Among them is a person described as Mr X who spent a week with Reyat as he built the bomb used in the attack.
“Various scenarios have come up where he was possibly identified but never fully confirmed. The same thing goes for the two people who checked in the bags in Vancouver — one on Air India flight 182, the other on a flight going west. They’ve never been totally satisfactorily identified to the point charges could be laid. So, that would be an example that there’s things out there to be known,” Bass said.
“I assume if they haven’t identified who those people are concretely, they (the RCMP) are still working at that,” he said, stressing he hasn’t been connected to the task force since retiring.
Bass expressed “concern” that the Khalistan movement continues to persist in Canada. “I don’t think it’s gone by any stretch of the imagination. I think it’s still alive and well for sure,” he said.
There is no statute of limitations in Canada for cases relating to terrorism or murder. That gives those like Bass the hope that what appears like a cold case could heat up again in the future.
A new official system that ranks UK universities according to their teaching quality has given the thumbs down to some of the most known centres of higher education – including the London School of Economics.
The first Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) instituted by the apex Higher Education Funding Council of England released on Thursday intendeds to help students make informed choices. A separate Research Excellence Framework ranks the quality of research.
Of the 295 universities, colleges and alternative providers of education assessed, 59 were rated as gold, 116 silver and 56 bronze, including LSE.
Also in the bronze category was the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), Liverpool, Southampton and Goldsmiths.
The ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge were given the gold rating.
The LSE, which is popular among Indian students particularly for postgraduate courses, responded to its bronze rating in a statement: “We recognise that we have work to do but we are confidence that the education initiatives that we have underway will lead to improvements for our students.”
“However, the challenges around TEF and the limits to the measures it employs are also well-documented,” it added.HTC