Twelve years on, the Candian police finally show movement in the Kanishka case

George Iype in New Delhi

Twelve years after 329 people on board an Air-India Boeing 747 Kanishka were killed in an explosion over the Atlantic Ocean, Canadian investigators are currently visiting India to solve the mystery behind the world's worst act of air terrorism.

A seven-member team from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has held discussions with officials at the home ministry and the Central Bureau of Investigation to seek sanction to interrogate a number of Punjab militants who are suspected to be involved in the crime.

The Air-India Jumbo -- which took off from Canada on June 23, 1985, exploded off the Irish coast in a terrorist act which was blamed on Punjab militants. Two hundred and seventy eight of the 329 passengers were Canadian citizens.

According to CBI sources, the RCMP detectives, who arrived in New Delhi last week, have sought the agency's assistance to resolve the 12-year-old mystery.

What has prompted the Canadian police to suddenly reopen the case is not known. CBI officials believe the Indian community in Canada has forced the RCMP to pursue the Kanishka case.

Earlier this year, various Indian organisations in different parts of Canada held rallies protesting against the Canadian government's attitude towards Indians settled in the country, especially its rather lacklustre investigation into the disaster.

The RCMP had registered a case in Toronto in 1985 and the CBI has been assisting the Canadian police from time to time. "RCMP investigators had paid a number of visits to India in the past. But for the last four years, there has been no interaction between the RCMP and the CBI," a senior agency officer told Rediff On The NeT.

According to the RCMP, seven Punjab terrorists and three Canadian nationals are wanted for the crime. While six of the seven Punjab terrorists are currently imprisoned in Indian jails, the seventh -- Amar Singh -- has been evading arrest for the last 12 years.

RCMP detectives believe Amar Singh -- along with Lal Singh -- masterminded the crime. Lal Singh, who holds a Canadian passport, was arrested in 1993. He is now imprisoned in a jail at Ajmer, serving a sentence for life.

According to CBI dossiers, Lal Singh, a member of the banned Khalistan Liberation Front, was involved in a number of terrorist acts in and out of the country. Amar Singh and he floated an organisation called K-2 in Canada and recruited a number of Punjabi youth.

CBI sources said the RCMP investigators met Bureau Director Joginder Singh last Sunday and formally sought the agency's permission to interrogate the six Punjab militants who are lodged in different jails across the country. While two of them are in a Bombay prison, three others are in the Punjab police's custody. All of them have been arrested for terrorist and subversive activities.

Another accused in the bombing, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was arrested by the Canadian police in 1990, but released on bail soon after. Parmar was killed in an encounter with the Punjab police after his arrival in India in 1991.

CBI officers said the agency's permission will not be enough for the RCMP to interrogate the Punjab militants. "The RCMP has to get approval from the home ministry and the respective state governments for interrogating the militants in jails," one CBI officer said, adding that the government would, however, permit the RCMP to go ahead as "India is also eager to unravel the Kanishka mystery."