Third arrest made in Air India bombing probe

VANCOUVER, OCT 30: A third suspect has been arrested in connection with the 1985 bombing of an Air India jet that killed 329 people in the world’s deadliest act of civilian aviation sabotage, Canadian police said. The suspect, who was not immediately identified, was arrested in the Vancouver area late on Sunday, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a brief written statement. Media reports in Vancouver on Monday said the latest suspect to be arrested was Hardial Singh Johal, a prominent member of the Vancouver Sikh community and outspoken advocate of an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state. The arrest came on the eve of court appearances inVancouver on Monday by Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, who are charged with murder in the case. The RCMP said more arrests were expected and investigators, who worked for 15 years before laying charges,have received a number of new tips since Malik and Bagri were arrested on Friday. Some of the people now providing police with information told authorities previously they had been too nervous to talk, said RCMP spokeswoman Cati Galliford. "They advised us that when you have arrested people and laidcharges that’s when we’ll come to you with information," Galliford said. Police declined to comment reports that one of the suspects being sought is in either Pakistan or Punjab. The Vancouver Province newspaper said the suspect, whom it did not name, was believed to have bought the air tickets in Vancouver that allowed two bomb-laden suitcases to pass through airport security. No passengers boarded with the tickets. One suitcase was transferred in Toronto to Air India flight 182 that exploded on June 23, 1985, off the coast of Ireland,killing 329 people.

The other suitcase was to be transferred to an Air India flight from Japan to India but exploded at Tokyo’s Narita airport, killing two luggage handlers. Malik, 53, of Vancouver, and Bagri, 51, of Kamloops, British Columbia, are prominent fundamentalist Sikhs in Canada, and allegedly connected with groups that waged a violent campaign for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.

Most of the suspects under investigation are believed to live in the Vancouver area, which has one of the largest Sikh populations outside of India. The 1985 bombings were thought to be intended, in part, to avenge the Indian Army’s 1984 storming of the Golden Temple — Sikhism’s holiest shrine. Plans by a Punjab’s chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal, to make an official visit to British Columbia have been scuttled in the awake of the arrests. Officials have declined to say why Badal’s visit has been cancelled, but reports in Canada and India said it was because of security concerns over rising tensions in the Sikh community. A judge at the British Columbia Provincial Court is expected to read the charges to Bagri and Malik on Monday and begin the scheduling process for a long and complicated trial in British Columbia Supreme Court. Authorities have said in the past that as many as 1,000 witnesses could be called in the trial. Malik’s attorney has said he expects to make an application to the Supreme Courtthis week for his client to be released on bail. A spokesman for prosecutors declined to say if they would oppose the bail application.