Air India 182 - 30th Anniversary

A man who was acquitted of this horrendous act of terrorism has been murdered in Canada. The attack, and a second bomb which was intended for an Air India flight to Thailand, are widely believed to have been the work of Sikh extremists but the full truth may never be known.

How strange that much the worst act of terrorism this country ever had to deal with had nothing to do with Northern Ireland. 37 years later, key issue remains unanswered- who had the technical expertise and organisation to construct and plant these sophisticated bombs?

There was an interesting Irish angle to the aftermath which was noted in the official Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the bombing

Canada also succeeded in keeping any conclusions about its responsibility for the crash out of the original Indian report (the Kirpal Report) but the subsequent Canadian Report was absolutely scathing about the lack of security around the flight despite specific warnings from Indian security.

As reflected in earlier posts on this thread, most people in Ireland recall this bombing as a "tragedy" or even "accident", not as the most terrible and calculated mass murder of 329 passengers and crew. The total would have doubled if their second bomb had not exploded prematurely in Tokoyo airport (killing "only" two baggage handlers). And it was pure chance that the bomb didn't explode over a populated area, killing people on the ground (as in Lockerie). By way of comparision, the IRA's most notorious attack on civilians on "Bloody Friday" 50 years ago, resulted in 9 killed and 130 injured (obviously, this does not mitigate the IRA's appalling crimes).

As the Canadian report makes clear, this massacre could easily have been prevented by normal security procedures in Canada. Its perpetrators have escaped justice except for one man convicted of manslaughter. Who knows if the murder of Ripudaman Singh Malik was in revenge for this bombing?