CHANDIGARH, India - The government of a north Indian state will assist Canadian officials investigating the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight that killed 329 people, most of them Canadian citizens, a top official said.
Parkash Singh Badal, the chief minister of Punjab state, made the pledge at a news conference Thursday in the state capital, Chandigarh. "Whatever assistance the Canadian police need from the Punjab police in their probe into the crash would be provided," Badal said in response to a question. He gave no further details.
While no one is currently before the courts in connection with the bombing, the RCMP has maintained that the investigation remains active and that charges would be laid if new evidence is found.
Air India Flight 182 from Toronto to London, originating in Vancouver exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing 329 people. The bombing has been widely blamed on Sikh separatists who used British Columbia as a base for their independence campaign in northern India. The dead included 82 children and 280 Canadian citizens, most of them of Indian origin or descent.
It is suspected that Sikh extremists were retaliating against the government-owned airline for an Indian army raid in 1984 on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, located in Amritsar, one of the state's main cities. The army raided the temple complex to flush out militants it said were hiding there.
The raid came as an insurgency for an independent Sikh state was festering, with militants launching attacks in Punjab to press their demands.
Only one person has been convicted in the bombing. Inderjit Singh Reyat served sentences for two manslaughter convictions for his role in gathering materials for the bomb on Flight 182 and for another bomb that exploded the same day at Japan's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers.
Two other men, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in Vancouver in 2005 after a lengthy and complex trial.
