In an shocking testimony at the public inquiry into the1985 Kanishka bombing, former Federal lawyer Graham Pinos said on Thursday that the then director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services had told him a few days before the incident that, "Sikhs are going to take a plane out of the sky."
Canadian security agencies including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the CSIS have been blamed for the failure to prevent the worst terrorist act in Canadian history that killed 329 people.
Pinos, who now runs a private legal practice, was being questioned by Tracey McCann, a lawyer with the Department of Justice.
Pinos told the court that in a conversation less than a week before the bombing, the then CSIS director of counter-terrorism Mel Deschenes had told him that Sikh extremism was becoming a problem in Canada and he feared something catastrophic might happen.
"He perceived Sikh extremists as dangerous. Likely, they'd bring a plane down," Pinos reportedly said about Deschenes' June 1985 comments.
However, during the trial of prime accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri at the British Columbia Supreme Court, Pinos had quoted a different statement by Deschenes. He had told the court that Deschenes was concerned about, "rogue elements of the Indian secret service operating in Canada."
RCMP Inspector Doug Best of the Air India task force in Vancouver also appeared as a witness before Justice John Major. In answer to a question from Commission lawyer Anil Kapoor, Best said that CSIS Director Deschenes had mentioned "renegade elements of the Indian Army secret police" to be involved in the bombing.
When Kapoor asked him if Pinos had talked about 'planes being blown out of the air,' Inspector Best responded, "I can assure you that I would have made note of planes being blown out of the air. I don't have any recall of that at all and my position is that had that been stated, I would have duly noted that."
Appearing before Justice Major, Pinos reportedly said he didn't remember much about his 2002 interviews with Crown prosecutors Len Doust and Warren Millman.
"I told them who was behind the bombing and that was the rogue elements of the Indian secret service," Pinos then said.
He had indicated that the Indian secret service was involved in the bombing even when he was aware of Deschenes' suspicions about Sikh extremism.
Text: Ajit Jain
