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Families of Kanishka bombing victims furious as pro-Khalistanis plan to honour the attack mastermind
The plans for the ‘Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Singh Parmar Khalistan Car Rally’ on June 25 were featured in a flyer which was flagged on social media by veteran Canadian journalist Terry Milewski
Toronto: Family members of the victims of Air India flight 182, the Kanishka, which was bombed by terrorists in 1985, are outraged and anguished over plans by pro-Khalistan elements for a car rally to a memorial site in Toronto in the name of the person considered the mastermind of the atrocity.
The plans for the ‘Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Singh Parmar Khalistan Car Rally’ on June 25 were featured in a flyer which was flagged on social media by veteran Canadian journalist Terry Milewski.
Bal Gupta, chair of the Air India 182 Victims Families Association, said, “It shocks me for sure.”
He added that the organisers of the rally had “lost all their humanity”.
Gupta lost his wife Ramvati, who was aboard that doomed aircraft. Air India flight 182 was flying from Montreal to London, when it was blown up by Khalistani terrorists on June 23, 1985. Some of its remnants were strewn over the coast of Ireland’s Cork region, the rest sank into the North Sea. All 307 passengers and 22 crew members aboard were killed.
Just as furious was Toronto-based Deepak Khandelwal, who was just 17 when he lost his sisters Chandra and Manju in the tragedy. He said he had discussed this development with some other family members and “they’re upset this is being planned at the memorial site”. He said the memorial site was “to remember the victims”.
Parmar is believed to be the main person behind the terror attack. Former Justice of Canada’s Supreme Court John Major headed a commission of inquiry into it and submitted a comprehensive report in 2010. In an interview with this correspondent in 2017, he said, “No doubt that he was either the mastermind or one of the masterminds and the evidence we heard made him clearly a top person in that operation. Whether there was somebody who secretly gave him orders, we don’t know. What we know, Parmar was the leader.”
An earlier report was submitted by Bob Rae, currently Canada’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in 2005, when he was Independent Adviser to the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The report stated, “In his March 2005 judgment, Justice Josephson of the British Columbia Supreme Court concluded that one of the leaders of the conspiracy was Talwinder Singh Parmar.” That reference was to Justice Ian Stephenson who presided over the Kanishka trial. Parmar was not tried as he was killed in an encounter with police in Punjab in 1992.
The Kanishka bombing remains the worst episode of terror in Canadian history and is recognised as its National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.
The planners of the rally also want the Canadian government to investigate India’s role in the bombing, a longstanding conspiracy theory advanced by Khalistani elements in the country. On this point, Justice Major said, “I think that’s just a camouflage, we saw no evidence of that.”
Khandelwal was appalled at the fresh attempt. “It’s disappointing people are trying to rewrite history,” he said.
While the bereaved will attend memorial services for their lost loved ones on the 38th anniversary of the bombing this Friday, the plans for the Khalistani event two days later will cast an unfortunate shadow over their mourning and remembrance.
