Air India Kanishka Bombing 1985: Action that went horribly wrong, design was not to kill but hit India’s economy

 

Air India Kanishka Bombing 1985: Action that went horribly wrong, design was not to kill but hit India’s economy

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

At the time when Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has triggered tremors in the geopolitics by unleashing “credible allegations” of  hand of Indian agencies in the killing of Khalistani Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer in Surrey in British Columbia in June last outside a gurdwara, the bombing of Air India Kanishka in 1985 in which 329 people were killed as Flight 182 originating from Toronto exploded mid-air near Irish coast has returned to the news columns.

This dark chapter is part of the Sikh radical narrative. Bombs were placed in two flights to avenge Operation Bluestar, the army attack on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) complex in Amritsar in June 1984.

USA has backed Canada in this narrative associated with alleged Indian hand despite strategic importance of India as counterweight to China.

It has now come out that not only had Trudeau raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on the sidelines of G20 conclave, Canada’s NSA had taken it up with authorities in India much earlier. What has not been denied by USA is the report that President Joe Biden too had touched upon this issue during his interaction with Modi. Now The New York Times has come out with the story that it was USA that had sounded Canada first on the Nijjer killing.

The issue under discussion is the bombing of Toronto-Montreal-London-New Delhi flight that exploded on June 23, 1985.

This writer worked on this shocking incident while writing the book ‘Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle’ that is second in the series on Sikh militant struggle.

The plan was not to kill but damage Indian economy by hitting public career Air India. The action went horribly wrong as the plane got delayed by about an hour and a half at Montreal. The bomb was timed to explode after landing in London the way the second targeted flight had exploded at Narita Airport in Japan. The main player in that case was Talwinder Singh Parmar who had come to Canada in 1970 but returned to India in 1978 with a mission after the Sikh-Nirankari clash of April 13, 1978 in Amritsar in which 18 persons including 13 Sikhs were killed. This incident of considered to be the trigger for Sikh militancy that turned into armed struggle for Khalistan after Operation Bluestar.  He had escaped from India after Daheru encounter with police in 1981.

Parmar provided the details to his associates years later in Pakistan when he formally joined the Babbar Khalsa. He was killed in an “encounter” in Indian Punjab. He was from the first group of Sikh militants.

Here are excerpts from my book ‘Rivers on Fire: Khalistan Struggle” explaining the entire sequence of operation and how it went wrong.

“Air India Kanishka Bombing

One of the most tragic incidents associated with the Sikh struggle that caught global attention was bombing of Air India Kanishka Flight 182  that exploded mid-air over  Atlantic Ocean near Irish coast on the fateful June 23 of 1985 killing all 329 people aboard the Boeing 747-237 B that was on Toronto-Montreal-London-New Delhi route.

It emerged years later that the design was not to kill people but hit India’s economy by targeting this national carrier.  India’s economy was to be strategically targeted under this design to avenge Operation Bluestar. The action went horribly wrong. The explosive device was timed to explode after the plane had landed in London. The tragedy was collateral damage.

It was an action carried out by the people associated with  Babbar Khalsa International based in Canada at their own but not by this militant organisation per se.

At another level in the Sikh circles in Canada, this tragedy is perceived to be the operation of the Indian agencies to defame the Sikh struggle globally.

According to the information now available, this operation was master-minded by Talwinder Singh Parmar who was killed years later by the Punjab police. Parmar spent more than a year in hiding in the caves in the mountainous Frontier area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan as the Canadian Sikh national of Indian origin came under scanner and pressure of the global security agencies. This area has been known to be no man’s land for centuries.

Parmar was finally named in the report of public inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Johan Major released on 17 June 2010 but not conclusively. The commission expressed the view that “Talwinder Singh Parmar was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa, a pro-Khalistan organisation at the heart of radical extremism, and it is now believed that he was the leader of the conspiracy to bomb Air India flights”. All those arrested were subsequently acquitted by the court in the absence of concrete evidence.

Parmar shared the details with Babbar Khalsa leaders in Pakistan in 1990 at the time of his formal induction as the vice-president of the organisation and member of the Panthic Committee.

Talwinder was from the first group of militants in Punjab who returned to Canada after his name surfaced in the encounter with police at Daheru village near Khanna in Ludhiana district on November 19, 1981 in which a police inspector Pritam Singh Bajwa and constable Surat Singh were killed. He had migrated to that country in 1970 and  resigned his job in 1978 to go back to India after the Sikh-Nirankari clash on April 13, 1978. He was associated with Akhand Kirtani Jatha, a puritan Sikh organisation.

As per the information, on target were two flights, the other being Air India Flight 301 from Tokyo to Bangkok for which the baggage carrying the time bomb was booked on Toronto-Tokyo Canada Pacific Flight 003 at Vancouver. The bomb on this plane exploded at New Tokyo Narita airport killing two Japanese porters shifting the luggage to Air India flight.

The explosion at Narita took place about an hour before Kanishka went down. Both the bombs were timed to explode after the planes had landed. The luggage was to be transferred to Air India flight at Narita.  Kanishka got an hour and 40 minutes late because of a spare engine that was installed at Toronto under its left wing to be flown to India as per the normal practice. (CBC Digital Archives, June 23, 1985 programme).  Another newspaper report stated: “A bomb on board was primed to explode on the runway at Heathrow during a refuelling stop. However, there was a delay of over two hours before take-off”.  (The Irish Times, November 11, 2000).  The Washington Post reported:  “The plane had taken off late from Toronto Saturday night, and was again delayed in Montreal”. (The Washington Post, June 24, 1985). All calculations of the conspirators went wrong due to this unforeseen delay that resulted in unprecedented tragedy. In case the take-off had not been delayed, the bomb would have exploded at London airport after the landing.

Parmar was arrested in Canada in this case in November 1985 but released in January 1986 due to lack of evidence. He was arrested again in June 1986 but released in May 1987. He left Canada again in May, 1988 as investigations progressed and the noose started tightening around him.

The Canadian investigators finally traced the case from probe into Narita explosion in collaboration with the Japanese authorities. Canada requested UK to extradite Inderjit Singh Reyat who was arrested on 5 February 1988.  He had shifted from Canada to UK some months after the Kanishka tragedy. He was finally flown to Vancouver on 13 December 1989 to be tried there. It was Reyat’s re-arrest that alarmed Parmar who contacted his associates in Babbar Khalsa seeking protection.

It is pertinent to mention that he was heading a splinter group of his own as Babbar Khalsa (Talwinder) when he planned these two bombings.

The men from Babbar Khalsa staying in Pakistan planned his hiding  with the help of some arms smuggler. The ISI providing this contact to Babbars can’t be ruled out.

One of Parmar’s associates had contacted Babbars in Pakistan seeking help for him. Wadhawa Singh, the Babbar Khalsa leader in Pakistan had been associated with Parmar  during the early days and thus had soft corner for him. It was decided to extend every possible help to him.

He was instructed to board the flight to Bangkok via Karachi. He took the precaution of not boarding the flight from any airport in Canada and took the flight from USA. He used fake identity and passport to travel to Pakistan. He was brought out at  Karachi and taken to Lahore as per the arrangement for such covert operations.  This was around May 1988.

Pakistan initially did not want anything to do with Parmar but  allowed him to enter following the issue having been strongly taken up by the Panthic Committee and the Babbar Khalsa. One of his associates from Canada was also brought in by these radical Sikh organisations.

While facilitating his entry, Pakistan refused to provide him sanctuary as that would have resulted in tension with Canada. Pakistan clearly told Wadhawa  and his associates to arrange safe house for him in India or elsewhere. He stayed in Lahore area for less than a month before he was shifted to a safe place.

It was then that a smuggler named Haji was contacted in Darra Adam Khel town in Frontier Province of Pakistan to make arrangements for Parmar in the caves in the Frontier area bordering Afghanistan where he stayed for more than a year and a half from 1988 to 1990 before  he was brought back. He was allowed by Pakistan to stay with Babbars for  only for some time after his return from the caves. Pakistan told Babbars to push him into India.

A news report appeared in Punjabi Tribune from London that Parmar was in contact with Afghan militant leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who later took over as Prime Minister of that country. (Punjabi Tribune, April 9, 1989). There was no reference of his having taken shelter in caves in Pakistan-Afghanistan border. As per this report, Hekmatyar had denied any links with the Khalistanis. However, the sources who were active in the Sikh struggle maintain the interaction was routine, if not regular.

While in the caves, he planned some major action  independently that had the potential to escalate tension between India and Pakistan to a new level and create war like situation. He paid Rs 40 lakh to Haji for the purchase of stinger missile that was to be delivered to him in Delhi after he crossed over. His planned operation  got leaked to the people in the ISI who were not in favour of such action that could trigger direct confrontation between India and Pakistan. The missile was never delivered.

He formally joined Babbar Khalsa after return from the caves. It was in Lahore in late 1990 or early 1991 that Parmar was inducted as vice-president of the BKI and nominated to the apex Panthic Committee (Dr Sohan Singh). He wanted to head Babbar Khalsa as he was  from the first group of militants but the organisation was in no mood to replace Sukhdev Singh. It was for this reason that he was suitably accommodated as Babbar Khalsa International’s nominee on the Panthic Committee.  He returned to India after that.  This was the only time that Parmar formally joined the mother organisation. Two of his associates were accommodated in the executive committee of Babbar Khalsa.

Two of his associates who were in contact with Babbars also came to Pakistan when he was to formally join the mother organisation. Also present in that hideout were Dr Sohan Singh and Daljit Singh who headed the Sikh Students Federation.

He stayed in India for about a year and went to Bangkok through Nepal in summer of 1992. He was there for about 2 months before heading to Europe. It was during this period that he parted company with Babbar Khalsa again. He contacted Babbar dissidents  in Europe to rope them into his new outfit. He again went to Pakistan from Europe. One of his earlier associates from Canada-Sarmukh Singh- was with him throughout this period.

He stayed in Pakistan and sought recognition as Babbar Khalsa (Talwinder) from that country. The authorities were reluctant as Pakistan was not in favour of split among these people. He came to India via Nepal after a short stay in Pakistan and settled in Mohali, the Punjab town bordering Chandigarh. He started mobilising his own network in India.

He was killed in Jalandhar district on October 15, 1992.

“Giving the details,  the Director General of Police, Mr K P S Gill, told newsmen here (Jalandhar) that the Naka party posted at Kangrain village in Phillaur sub division  intercepted two Maruti cars coming from Akalpura. The occupants of the cars, finding no escape route, started firing at the naka party. The police not only returned the fire but also chased them. The car occupants left the cars and ran to the fields. But the police gunned down three of the fleeing suspects in exchange of fire. The remaining three suspects entered the fields and hid themselves there. But when the police surrounded the fields and fired, the hiding suspects also returned the fire which continued for two hours”.

“The police started search operations immediately after the firing from the fields stopped and recovered six bodies. Three of the suspects were identified as Talwinder Singh Parmar, the originator of terrorism in Punjab, and two Pakistani nationals Habibullah Khan and Inkhab Ahmed Zia, residents of Lahore. Two passports bearing Nos H-822669 and E-090696 of Islamic Republic of Pakistan were also recovered. The police also recovered one all-purpose machine gun, three AK-47 assault rifles, one rocket, one rocket launcher, one drum magazine and five magazines of AK 47 rifles”. (The Indian Express, October 16, 1992).