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Third suspect in Kanishka bombing held

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested a third suspect in Vancouver on Sunday in connection with the 1985 bombing of Air-India's Kanishka airliner that killed 329 people.

The suspect was not identified. Nor has he been charged yet.

The arrest came on the eve of appearances in court by Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, the two men who were arrested on Friday and have been charged on eight counts, including criminal conspiracy and first-degree murder.

The RCMP said more arrests were expected with investigators receiving a number of new tips since Malik and Bagri's arrests.

Some of the people now giving information to the police said they had been too nervous to talk earlier, RCMP spokeswoman Constable Cate Galliford said.

"They advised us that when you have arrested people and laid charges, that's when we'll come to you with information," she said.

The RCMP, however, refused to comment on a report in The Province, a Vancouver newspaper, on Sunday that one key suspect is now in Pakistan.

The newspaper said the unnamed suspect 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, over the Atlantic. The other was to be transferred to an Air-India flight from Japan to India, but exploded at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing two porters.

The suspect was detained by Canadian police as early as November 1985, but was later released for lack of evidence, the newspaper reported, quoting unnamed sources.

EARLIER REPORT:
Canadian police arrest 2 men for 1985 Kanishka bombing

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