Air India bombers still torment their victims 30 years on

[SAadmin]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/air-india-bombers-still-torment-their-victims-30-years-on-1.3123882

 

 

Air India bombers still torment their victims 30 years on

Portrait of bomber a permanent fixture on the exterior of Surrey, B.C., temple

By Terry Milewski, CBC News Posted: Jun 23, 2015 7:42 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 23, 2015 7:42 AM ET

"Today, we see such propaganda being passed around," Shipra Rana writes about the continuing aftermath of Air India Flight 182. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

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June 23 never comes easily for the families. Thirty years on, they feel the same anguish they felt after Air India Flight 182 was blown apart. What remains, too, is the sense that they have been abandoned.

Yes, they eventually got a judicial inquiry — but its recommendations now gather dust. 

And 30 years after the bombing?

"Does anyone — does Canada herself — remember the faces of the murdered?" asks Shipra Rana, writing from Toronto to mark the day when she lost her sister in the bombing.

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Do people realize even now, she wonders, that the 329 victims were mostly Canadian citizens? And yet, Rana writes, there are people in Canada who still openly revere the men who placed the bomb.

"Today, we see such propaganda being passed around."

Then, she resorts to all-caps to convey her feelings: "NO ONE HAS THE GUTS TO STOP THEM."

Portrait of a martyred bomber

Here's part of what she's talking about: the large poster placed outside a temple in Surrey, B.C., in honour of — yes, in honour of — Talwinder Singh Parmar.

Talwinder Singh Parmar is portrayed as a martyr outside Dasmesh Darbar Temple in Surrey, B.C.

The poster is a permanent fixture on the exterior of the Dasmesh Darbar Temple. The photograph of it was taken last Friday, June 19. To passers-by, it's just another portrait of some saintly stalwart of the Sikh religion.

Actually, about the only thing the defence, the prosecution and the judge all agreed on at the Air India trial in Vancouver was that Parmar was the mastermind of the Air India bombing.

That makes him the worst mass murderer in Canadian history, by far. And he is publicly celebrated to this day as a shaheed — a martyr — by his devotees.

Parmar was never put on trial for the massacre he designed with great care and determination. Although India had previously tried to extradite him for the murder of two policemen, Canada had refused. He settled in Burnaby, B.C., where he assembled a team to place bombs on two planes connecting with Air India flights.

In the woods near Duncan, on Vancouver Island, CSIS spies tailed Parmar and his chosen bomb maker, Inderjit Singh Reyat, to a test explosion using dynamite bought from a logging company.

Different rules

That was three weeks before the real thing. Neither CSIS nor the RCMP connected the dots in time to stop the plot.

The Indian police played by different rules. Seven years later, in 1992, they caught and killed Parmar while he was on a mission to buy Stinger anti-aircraft missiles from the Pakistani Taliban.

Today, Parmar's defenders still find ways to honour him and his cause — the dream of an independent Sikh state, carved out of India, to be called Khalistan.

And, for one reason or another, back in Surrey, nothing prevents the temple management celebrating a man who slaughtered 331 innocents — the passengers and crew of Flight 182, along with two baggage handlers who picked up the other suitcase bomb at Narita Airport in Tokyo.

That's a long explanation of Shipra Rana's anniversary letter. But the other families understand perfectly. The wounds are deep and, by now, they know very well what salt feels like.

[Guest]

Absolutely disgusting that gurdwaras in canada are being allowed to put poster of this street level mob terrorist in canadian gurdwaras, this is classic example of playing right in hands of GOI as these terrorist backdrop were raw regardless of them being aware or not... as i still maintain GOI raw spies-were backdrop in form of violent sikh individuals supporting these two individuals who were responsible for air india bombing by hiring these two fascist street level mob terrorist in garb of sikh bana- parmar and reyat ..it was agreed both by judge, defence and crown in canada that parmar was behind air india bombings.

Well done to our incompetent leaders by playing right in hands of GOI, its best interest for GOI that sikh gurdwaras glorify these murders so that our community looks like extremist..our sensible approach as community would have been isolated and nail these violent extremist/terrorist to the wall of shame, condemn their actions without any reservations, unequivocally. 

 

[kdsingh80]

Absolutely disgusting that gurdwaras in canada are being allowed to put poster of this street level mob terrorist in canadian gurdwaras, this is classic example of playing right in hands of GOI as these terrorist backdrop were raw regardless of them being aware or not... as i still maintain GOI raw spies-were backdrop in form of violent sikh individuals supporting these two individuals who were responsible for air india bombing by hiring these two fascist street level mob terrorist in garb of sikh bana- parmar and reyat ..it was agreed both by judge, defence and crown in canada that parmar was behind air india bombings.

Well done to our incompetent leaders by playing right in hands of GOI, its best interest for GOI that sikh gurdwaras glorify these murders so that our community looks like extremist..our sensible approach as community would have been isolated and nail these violent extremist/terrorist to the wall of shame, condemn their actions without any reservations, unequivocally. 

 

​Just accept the fact there is big extremist  element within sikhs. Why always blame GOI

[Guest]

Because they always provide fuel to the fire.

[Guest]

Top comments from CBC:

From non sikhs

Come on Sikh community, this is shameful and is not giving you a good reputation... See this murderer for what he is, he killed 331 innocents, including women and little children. That photo of him is disgusting, take it down! What I remember from this act of terrorism is the ad nauseum showing of the body of a little child being brought out of the water and onto a helicopter... It was shamefully used by the media, over and over, it was terrible. May the families of the victims find peace, may the perpetrators rot in he11..

 

[OnPathToSikhi]

It's not that simple. People who have his photo might use the same argument - Saying that Sikhs are not terrorists. The bombing is always put in the backdrop of Bagri's speech. Something that "intelligence" desperately wanted to hear to connect the dots. It is not very difficult to comprehend this. Sikhs have never supported terrorism and never will. The whole dynamics of 1984  and the later were seemingly manufactured. One systematic outcome can be seen to date and this is to disregard Sikhs as 'saviours' of India (when I say India,I mean the country, not 'Hindus' only)  and it's cultural identity or rather as anti-India/anti-'Hindu' and slowly put the trust on 'someone else'. With Sikhs openly being a part of integral India, India would possibly have prospered without much 'external' help.

GOI is involved due to their 'slave' and insecure/greed tendencies.

There was documentary on the bombings, if I remember, where they show the interrogator asking Reyat '... What should be done with the people who carried out these bombings ..' to which he says '... they should be shot dead ...'. In my opinion it was not them or any of the Sikhs who were involved in the bombings ...

Just remember - Talwinder Singh Parmar, a Canadian citizen. having warrants issued against him in India, bombs air india  and then goes to India to get shot dead ....? Makes Sense? ... Not.

[Crystal]

​Just accept the fact there is big extremist  element within sikhs. Why always blame GOI

Big doesn't quite cut it....MAJOR problem. Even some glorify blatent terrorists who bombed and killed innocents(also in Punjab), out right disgusting. 

 

Crystal

[Guest]

I agree with parts of article below. Lets try to find common ground

 

1. Poster should be taken down not on premises on long polarizing never ending debate if parmar was shaheed or behind air india bombing but rather poster should be taken down for sake of not hurting sentiments of victims of air india bombing.

 

2. All people in air india bombed flight were innocent but if there are someone out there who wants to play us vs them card then let me remind them, 92 passengers on this flight were sikhs (baptised non baptised alike).

 

3. Lets try to be little more sentiment towards that anniversary of air india bombing towards victims if not premanently atleast on that anniversary day* as i m sure if tables are turned victims start putting posters of congress leader- amarinder singh, pm monamohan singh rss run down rudla, langowal, n sikh temple, hate monger hindu nationalists.. we would be equally outraged.

 

4. Whether we like it or not, reyat and parmar were implicated, charged, conculded as air india bombing preprators by canadian judical system, its same canadian judical system which freed malik and bagri declared non guilty , free them from any wrongdoing.. which we all appreciate, so we should stop cherry picking on major points. We cannot ignore they were complicit in the henious crime, we cannot ignore statement from parmar that air india will fall off the skies, we cannot ignore reyat himself admitted making bomb and committed prejury.

 

5. I personally beleive and maintain according to my research GOI was behind air india bombing as these two individuals were simply not competent enough to carry such sosphicated attack. However i maintain these individuals were just pawns - foot soldiers who did the ground work for GOI WITHOUT THEM BEING AWARE OF BACKDROP -whos pulling the strings, which means these misguided emotional individuals had very criminal intent to do this as their emotions were high. Either way whilst GOI were mastermind, these people are no less guilty than them.

 

6. I as a canadian sikh refuse to accept people own personal relationship/attachment with these individuals as mainstream voice of sikhs in canada. So stop throbbing poster of this questionable individual on rest of us, lets go on consensus and find out.

 

7. Personal relationship with these questionable individuals should be behind close doors its none of anyone business if people bring out these questionable individual poster/despite of canadian judical system verdict in mainstream gurdwara on "CANADIAN SOIL' as result negative media coverage then its more of self inflictation rather than playing victim oh look how media is ough to get us yet again :(

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/air-india-bombers-still-torment-their-victims-30-years-on-1.3123882

Edited July 8, 2015 by N30 S!NGH

[Kuttabanda2]

There are questions arising about Talwinder Singh Babbar or even Babbar Khalsa carrying out such an act. Many Singhs ( that knew Parmar and others) I have talked to said that, intellectually, Parmar wasn't capable of plotting and carrying out such an act of Terrorism, the whole history around the air India bombings is very cloudy and ambiguous.