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Air India bombing suspects refused Indian visas

Two men considered suspects in the June 1985 bombing of an Air India jetliner have been barred from visiting India, the Vancouver Province reported.

Both men -- key players in Vancouver's Sikh militant movement -- had their applications for visitor's visas to India rejected in the past month. The rejection surprised the duo, who have been allowed to visit India in the past, said theProvince.

The first suspect has visited India three times since 1982. However, the Indian consulate revoked last May a multiple-entry visa issued to him in 1997. The second man visited India last year.

But they have been told that high-level officials in New Delhi had barred their entry and that India's consulate in Vancouver could not help them.

Sources told the newspaper that the refusal was based on opposition from India's intelligence and police agencies, which have worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on the 1985 bombing of an Air India flight, the Province said.

Authorities in Vancouver and India fear that the duo could disappear in India if they were allowed to leave. The police involved in the 14-year investigation are just working toward finally laying charges.

The first suspect was identified as being present at Vancouver international airport on June 22, 1985, when two luggage bombs were checked in by men who did not board their planes. His phone number also turned up on two tickets booked for the bombers.

The second suspect is being investigated to determine what role he may have played in the financing, planning and execution of the plan.

One bomb downed Air India flight 182, killing all 329 people aboard. Within an hour, a second bomb exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport killing two baggage handlers.

One man from British Columbia, Inderjit Singh Reyat, has already been convicted in the Narita airport bombing and is serving a 10-year sentence near Vancouver.

Both the men currently refused a visa to India have begun trying to get senior Indian officials to overturn the ruling, the Province said.

Both suspects have families, friends and substantial investments in India. They have visas to go to Pakistan, but the Canadian authorities have been not been able to block them from visiting that country, which is sympathetic to Sikh separatists.

The men said they wanted to visit India to take part in the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the modern Sikh faith.

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