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Loss Of Faith: How The Air India Bombers Got Away With Murder

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Who Bombed Air India?

Perhaps no one is better acquainted with the details of the Air India case and the surrounding events than Kim Bolan. She had barely joined the Vancouver Sun newspaper as a rookie reporter when Air India Flight 182 exploded in the sky on July 23, 1985, killing all 329 on board. Ever since, Bolan has doggedly followed the case for two decades, making four trips to India and several visits to Pakistan, the U.S., and the U.K.

This book, the result of her long and arduous 'sewa' (service, p. 206), takes the reader through the backdrop, the bombing, and the tortuous investigation that climaxed in the twin trials and acquittals of two Vancouver-based Sikhs, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri.

The entire episode is packed with ironies. Cowards like Bagri, who publicly called for the murder of 'fifty thousand Hindus' (p. 46), are roaming free. Meanwhile, the few who demonstrated the courage to expose the violence and hatred were either assassinated or are living under death threats.

Tara Singh Hayer was the founding editor of the vernacular weekly Indo-Canadian Times. A failed attempt on his life on August 28, 1988, just days after he published his 'most pointed reference to Bagri' (p. 196), left him in a wheelchair. Harkirat Singh Bagga told the police that 'Bagri had provided him with the .357-caliber revolver he had used to shoot Hayer' (p. 191).

Tarsem Singh Purewal, publisher of the British Punjabi-language newspaper Des Pardes, was assassinated in 1995 after he 'wrote an article that was extremely critical of the I.S.Y.F. [International Sikh Youth Federation] and promised more exposés on the Babbar Khalsa' (p. 195).

'Rani Kumar' (not her real name) was the star witness against Malik. A note she had tucked into her journal said that 'if she were found dead, she had not committed suicide' (p. 153).

Many of the Sikhs at the forefront on both sides of the equation were 'born again' Sikhs. That is, they had shed the orthodox external regalia, including unshorn hair and turbans, only to reacquire the symbols in the religiously hyper-charged milieu following Operation Bluestar. (Bluestar was the Indian army's 1984 offensive on the Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple complex at Amritsar, Punjab, a Sikh Vatican of sorts.) Examples include Talwinder Singh Parmar, Bagri, and Hayer.

As the book makes clear, Canadian federal authorities might never have laid many of the related charges (e.g. against Malik's Khalsa School) had they not been repeatedly shamed into doing so by Bolan's proactive investigative journalism.

Inderjit Singh Reyat is the only person ever to have been convicted in connection with this case. He was convicted for manslaughter for making the bombs that destroyed two Air India craft, including Kanishka (Flight 182). The revolver used to shoot Hayer and the one found illegally in Reyat's possession were both traced back to the same source in California (p. 215).

Malik would surely not wish to be judged by the company he kept. The first three witnesses who took the stand in his defense were 'proven by the Crown [prosecution] to have a history of lying' (p. 328). One defense witness for Malik, Raminder Singh 'Mindy' Bhandher, admitted to having thrown rocks through the living room window of prosecution witness Narinder Gill in 1997 to keep him from disclosing financial irregularities at Malik's Khalsa School (p. 326). Another defense witness, Satwant Singh Sandhu, admitted to having made an on-air death threat against Bolan (p. 327).

Malik himself had 'lied under oath' at the hearing in connection with the funding for his legal defense for the Air India trial (p. 282).

According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.), 'all [prosecution witnesses] had passed lie-detector tests that the defence witnesses had not had to take' (p. 349). The judge, Ian Josephson, declared defense witness Reyat to be 'an unmitigated liar under oath' (p. 339).

The prosecution, the defense, and the judge all 'accepted that Talwinder Parmar had masterminded the bombings' (p. 339). But if Parmar, the chief of the Babbar Khalsa, was the 'mastermind,' then how are Bagri, Parmar's self-acknowledged deputy (p. 315), and Malik, the Babbar Khalsa's primary financier (p. 32), to be regarded as innocent?

Given all of the above, it is no small miracle that Kim Bolan actually survived long enough to document her detailed findings. And for that we should all be grateful.

An exceptional investigative report of terrorism perpetrated by militant Sikhs in Canada.

Kim Bolan was a cub reporter for The Vancouver Sun in 1985 when a bomb exploded on Air-India Flight 182 flying from Toronto, Canada to New Delhi, India. The plane exploded off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 passengers and crew aboard. Another bomb exploded at the airport in Narita, Japan killing two baggage handlers; this bomb was intended for another flight to India. The bombing was in retaliation for the attack by the Indian Army on the Golden Temple in Amristar, Punjab, Sikhism's holiest shrine in India.

The author of this fascinating book followed the incident for 20 years and became intimately involved with the families of the victims. She also became so knowledgeable about the terrorist perpetrators that her life was threatened. She lays responsibility for the tragedy on the extremist element of the Sikhs and on the Canadian government. Inept Canadian authorities, she says, failed to protect the innocent citizens of Indian descent and, 20 years later, the justice system failed to punish the guilty.

The author displays prejudiced and biased opinions towards many events that took place and the Sikh community/culture in general. She consequently forms hints of racial profiling. She tends to separate and label a very strong, close knit, well established community into categories such as Moderates, Separatists, Extremists, Gangsters and fundamentalist. Fundamentalisms, Terrorism are just easy labels for herself and fellow prejudiced ensemble to use. That being said if you do read this book please research 'Anti British', Indian parties created during the uprising to Indian independence/partition. You will be surprised at whom the links of their creation point to. Pawn's in the play. These organizations (AKJ Babar Khalsa) are looked down upon by Sikh historians, religious bodies and even pro Khalistan supporters. They are internally considered non Sikh!
The fact remains the police and intelligence community have a lot to account for. May I also suggest 'Fighting for Faith and Nation' by Cynthia K Mahmood and 'reduced to ashes 'by Ram Narayan Kumar et al.