Canada's spy agency has dismissed as 'absurd' reports that one of its agents may have known about the bombing of Air-India's Kanishka flight in 1985.
Media reports on Tuesday said a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent had infiltrated a Sikh militant group prior to the bombing and may have known about the plan.
The reports, citing Royal Canadian Mounted Police interrogation files, alleged that CSIS pulled out its mole --
Surjan Singh Gill -- just three days before Air-India Flight 182 exploded over the Atlantic and then hid his activities from the RCMP.
Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are currently on trial in Vancouver for their alleged role in the destruction of Air-India Flight 182.
"CSIS's role is to provide intelligence to the government to prevent acts of terrorism from occuring in or originating from Canada," the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
"If CSIS had had any inforation which could have prevented the disaster, it would have provided it to the government and the police. Any suggestion that CSIS would not have done everything in its power to prevent such a tragedy from occurring is absurd," it said.
Meanwhile, the Canadian solicitor general has seconded the agency's contention that it did not have any prior knowledge about the bombing.
"They did not have information to believe that a terrorist incident was going to happen on the Air-India flight," Solicitor General Wayne Easter told reporters while rejecting opposition demands for a public inquiry into the matter.
Kanishka trial: The complete coverage