Canadian government officials delayed the process of obtaining a wiretap warrant against the key figure in the Air India bomb plot Talwinder Singh Parmar because of religious concerns, a former intelligence officer has said.
"I lost my daughter Indira in that bombing along with 328 other innocent people. So, Akhand Paath should be for these victims and not for the terrorists," Kalsi said.
The three-day, 24-hour-running, Akhand Path began on Friday but with the portrait of Babbar Khalsa leader Talwinder Singh Parmar hanging inside, staring at the faces of the congregation -- some of them being members of the victims' families.
An application for the warrant to tap phone calls, dated October 19, 1984, stated that Parmar had been calling for the murder of 50,000 Hindus and other acts of violence for months in speeches across Canada.
The prosecution claims Reyat, who admitted a minor role in the bombing, was refusing to identify others in the plot.
Prime suspect in the 1985 Air India bombing Talwinder Singh Parmar had reportedly told Punjab Police that leaders of a Sikh youth organisation might be behind the attack that claimed 329 lives.
Canada's spy agency was neither cooperative nor forthright during the probe into the Kanishka bombing case, a former Crown prosecutor has said terming as "incompetent" its act of erasing wiretap tapes of a key suspect in the case.
Politicians of all levels of government attended the April seven event, which drew a crowd estimated at 100,000.
Over the years, Khalistani extremists were further "emboldened" and started "operating with impunity" from Canada.
'This whole story is going to become extremely murky and that discovering who is an agent of the Indian government is not necessarily a simple matter.' 'And that if Trudeau was to name (the person) who he thinks is the connection with the Indian government, that the Indian government will be sure to have some deniability and will be able to say he had nothing to do with us.'
'Can Trudeau's evidence hold up? If not, he's finished.'
'And when the floats go by in the parade garlanded and decorated with the posters of gun toting assassins and murderers and martyrs, you look the other way.' 'And in return we will bring you 10,000 votes because the people of the gurdwaras will vote as we tell them to vote.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances