Air India victims echo judge's remarks on Sikh radicals

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Vancouver, May 12: Reacting to remarks of a Canadian judge, who headed the 1985 Air India bombing inquiry, in Chandigarh Tuesday that Sikh radicals were more active in Canada than India, victims of the 1985 bombing say he is 'telling the truth'.
Speaking at a media conference in Chandigarh, former Canadian chief justice John C. Major, who last year submitted his inquiry into the 1985 bombing of the Air India Kanishka flight from Canada to India, reportedly said, 'Sikh radicals are more active in Surrey (in Canada) than in India. They are a closed group. They can also target India.''
A Vancouver suburb city of over 450,000 people, Surrey is home to the largest concentration of the Sikh Punjabi community in Canada.
Blamed on Vancouver-based pro-Khalistanis, the Kanishka bombing June 23, 1985, off the Irish coast killed all 329 people on board.
Bal Gupta, president of the Air India Victim Families' Association who lost his wife in the bombing, told IANS, 'Yes, threat still exists from these people. Those who bombed the Air India flight are still roaming free in Canadian society. These crooks can do anything.''
Former Canadian health minister Ujjal Dosanjh, who is facing three lawsuits in Canada and India for saying that Sikh radicals are still active in Canada, said he felt vindicated by Justice John Major's remarks.
'If there is one person that ought to know about Sikh radicals in Canada, it is John Major who headed the inquiry. It is somewhat disconcerting and calls for concern for the Canadian government and the Canadian public that he has come to the same conclusion (about radicals) that I have maintained all these years.''
Dosanjh, who was badly beaten up by pro-Khalisan radicals here in the 1980s, said, 'The very fact that I am being sued by an organization whose genesis was in violence and by individuals from Canada shows that pro-Khalistan elements are more active in Canada than India.''
Both Bal Gupta and Ujjal Dosanjh agreed with the judge's remarks that the Canadian government was not doing enough to implement his inquiry recommendations on security and ex-gratia for the victims.
Anil Singh Hanse, son of Kanishka pilot Narendra Singh Hanse, added, 'For Justice John Major to travel to India and mention this issue means that he is feeling embarrassed that his country Canada are behaving in this tardy and non-chalant manner.
'Thirty-two million dollars is a lot of money to spend on an inquiry if it was grandstanding by the Canadian government to show the world look we care. If some straightforward answers are given as to what recommendations are going to be implemented ( or not) will be appreciated by us - the family members.''