Air India bombing families demand meeting with Public Safety Minister Anandasangaree
Relatives of the 329 victims of the 1985 Air India bombing have requested an urgent meeting with Minister Gary Anandasangaree after the RCMP declared the investigation inactive.
Air India families push for urgent ministerial meeting after RCMP drops active investigation
Relatives of victims of Canada's deadliest terrorist attack have formally requested a meeting with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, according to Vancouver Sun Crime, after the RCMP confirmed it has no remaining leads to pursue in the 1985 Air India bombing.
The RCMP summoned family members to a September 12 meeting in Toronto, where investigators disclosed that the probe into the destruction of Air India Flight 182 is now inactive. The attack, on June 23, 1985, killed all 329 people on board when a bomb exploded off the coast of Ireland. A second bomb, also made in British Columbia, detonated at Tokyo's Narita Airport the same day, killing two baggage handlers.
Toronto resident Sudha Berry, who lost her 16-year-old brother Sharad in the bombing, sent a letter to Anandasangaree's office on Tuesday requesting the meeting. Berry noted a contradiction between the minister's public statements — in which he suggested the investigation remained open — and the RCMP's own characterization of it as inactive with no suspects to pursue.
"You must be aware that new leads will not magically appear without active effort from the RCMP and other law enforcement authorities," Berry wrote. "The stance you have taken is illogical and unacceptable to the families. How can the minister for public safety allow the criminals behind the largest terrorist act in Canadian history to go unpunished and for the families to go without justice?"
Berry's letter pressed Anandasangaree for details on the nature of oversight his office has exercised over the investigation across the years, and asked for a concrete plan to reinvigorate the probe on an urgent basis. She also pointed to his attendance at memorial services in Ireland — both this year and last — as evidence of a personal commitment she said had not translated into action.
"Given your connections to the community, your previous meetings with the families at the anniversaries and your personal expressions of sympathy, we had expected you to do much better than your predecessors," her letter stated. "You now have an opportunity to show your leadership and change the trajectory of the investigation."
Sanjay Lazar, who lost his parents and three-year-old sister in the bombing, also called on the minister to meet with families as soon as possible. Lazar, who lives in Pune, India, attended the Toronto meeting in person. He raised concerns that communication from investigators had not reached all affected relatives, particularly those outside Canada.
"Information is not being disseminated to everybody," Lazar said. "There is a process of conversation that everybody must have. Everybody's lost their loved ones."
Lazar noted that the RCMP had not contacted India-based families of victims, including relatives of Air India crew members who perished. He said the government must engage broadly with all surviving family members, regardless of where they reside.
"I do believe the government will have to look at this deeply and clearly, and talk to the families because it speaks to how poorly the RCMP and the investigative agencies have handled this and many many other matters in the years gone by," he said.
The bombing was plotted by B.C.-based suspects connected to the Babbar Khalsa, a designated terrorist group that was seeking an independent state in India's Punjab region. Two men linked to the group were charged in 2000 but acquitted in 2005. A third suspect, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was convicted of manslaughter in connection with both bombings and has since been released from prison.
A subsequent judicial inquiry found that the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had committed investigative and intelligence failures both before and after the attacks. Several additional suspects — some still living, others since deceased — were identified during the trial and inquiry but were never charged.
Source: Vancouver Sun Crime