Some relatives of the 1985 Air India bombing victims are devastated after the RCMP told them the investigation has hit a dead end.
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Some relatives of the 1985 Air India bombing victims are devastated after the RCMP told them the investigation into Canada’s deadliest terrorist attack has hit a dead end.
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At a meeting near Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Sept. 12, about 40 relatives learned police have no new investigative leads to pursue.
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Sanjay Lazar, who lost his whole family in the June 23, 1985 bombing, said he was furious at the message conveyed by the RCMP.
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“What police agency gives up after 41 years?” Lazar said in an interview Friday.
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He said the investigators who flew from B.C. to Toronto confirmed that the investigation was “inactive.”
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Air India Flight 182, travelling from Canada to India via London, was downed off the coast of Ireland when a B.C.-made suitcase bomb exploded, killing all 329 on board. A second B.C.-made bomb, destined for another Air India flight, blew up at Tokyo’s Narita Airport the same day, killing two baggage handlers.
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Two B.C. men linked to the Babbar Khalsa terrorist group were acquitted on all counts in 2005. A third, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was convicted of manslaughter in both bombings, but is now out of prison.
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A subsequent judicial inquiry exposed investigative and intelligence failures by the RCMP and CSIS both before and after the bombings.
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Lazar, who lives in Pune, India, said the most “shocking” point in the meeting was when the RCMP asked families to provide them with tips police could pursue.
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Lazar has now written to Prime Minister Mark Carney about his disappointment at the status of the terrorism investigation.
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“As the son of my late parents, and the last surviving member of that family, I feel duty bound to express my disgust, hurt and anger at the expressed intention of the RCMP to wind down the Air India Bombing investigations,” Lazar’s letter said.
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He also suggested that if the RCMP has no leads, the case should be handed to “others who may be more capable.”
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Bob Rae, Canada’s former UN ambassador who did a preliminary Air India inquiry in 2005, said the message to the families at the meeting was “deeply regrettable.”
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“It’s a terrible signal,” Rae said Friday. “The fact that 331 people (in total) were killed, and that it was clearly a terrorist attack means that this is a file that never closes, and it can’t possibly close because they still haven’t found enough about who else could have been responsible for what took place.”
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Toronto’s Lata Pada, who lost husband Vishnu and daughters, Arti and Brinda, said Friday that she too was upset after the meeting, especially when she attended thinking the RCMP would tell families about breakthroughs they’d made.
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“It was very disappointing and extremely upsetting because we, from the families, don’t believe that the investigation is over. There are still quite a few people who need to be pulled out of the woodwork and spoken to,” she said.
