Indian carrier Air India has been vindicated by Justice John Major's report on the bombing of Air India flight-182, in which all 329 people aboard were killed after Boeing 747 Kanishka disintegrated off the coast of Ireland.
In its testimony before Justice Major on May 1, 2007, Air India representatives had stated that despite their clear warning to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on June 3, 1985, that Sikh extremists had planned to target India's national carrier with suitcase bombs or suicide squads, the warning was not taken seriously by the Canadian federal police.
In his report that he released June 17 in Ottawa, Justice Major agrees with Air India's contention.
While releasing five volumes of his report, running to over 3,000 pages, he referred to the telex Air India had sent about the threat to flight 182.
Rediff.com's US weekly India Abroad has a copy of the telex sent by the Air India office from Bombay (Mumbai) on June 1, 1985 (three weeks before the Air India tragedy) to all its Canadian offices at the time including Toronto, Cairo and Sydney.
The telex read: "Assessment of threat received from intelligence agencies reveal the likelihood of sabotage attempts being undertaken by Sikh extremists by placing time/delay devices, etc. in the aircraft or registered baggage. It is also learnt that Sikh extremists are planning to set up suicide squads who may attempt blow up an aircraft by smuggling in of explosives in the registered or carry dash on dash baggage or any other means."
The telex warned local law enforcement agencies that this intelligence information called for "meticulous implementation of counter sabotage measures for flights at all airports".
Accompanied by a forwarding letter, Air India area manager at the airport that time L H Vaney sent the copy of the telex to officer-in-charge of the RCMP (Toronto International Airport) on June 3 suggesting "the contents of the telex are self-explanatory, and we would appreciate your arranging for suitable action to be taken in this matter".
The report has stated that the Canadian security had received ample intelligence for it to act on time.
'There was a great deal of information available to the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) and the RCMP before the bombing of Air India Flight 182 that should have called for enhanced security procedures and vigilance," Justice Major said while releasing the report.
"And those warnings were not taken seriously."
He also said the Air India telex of June 1, 1985, was "not seen (by the CSIS) because the telex was not passed on to anyone by the RCMP "
The Commission had questioned the RCMP and the CSIS in May 2007 why the Air India telex was "not in the CSIS documents even though there are thousands of other documents?"
Commission Attorney Anil Kapoor quoted the RCMP saying that it had not passed the telex on to the CSIS because of "oversight".
Justice John Major said it was "surprising that that would be the explanation -- oversight for something as dire as that".
It is a sad revelation that after receiving such a serious warning from Air India, the only action the RCMP reportedly took was to ask the CSIS for a new threat assessment on the airline, but reportedly "neglected to hand over the critical information provided by Air India", Justice Major said.
He also stated the negligence by the CSIS, which had responded to the telex saying their "assessment indicated there was no specific threat against Air India" and even criticised Air India of "crying wolf".
In his report Justice Major has been severely critical of the RCMP and CSIS.
"The view of Canadian officials prior to the bombing that government-owned Air India was 'crying wolf' in order to obtain additional security for free was MISGUIDED."
Image: Justice John Major reads out the Kanishka bombing report in Canada on Thursday | Photograph: Ajit Jain
