Author: Press Trust Of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 5, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/30128.html
Sikh militants had in 1986 threatened to kill
then Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney and blow up the Toronto subway
system, according to just declassified documents before the Air India Inquiry
Commission.
An anonymous letter received by police in
early July 1986 laid out the terrorist attacks that would unfold if Talwinder
Singh Parmar, the mastermind behind the Kanishka bombing which left 329 people
dead, and others in jail at the time were not released.
On July 8, 1986, the first indication of retaliation against Canada emerged
in the form of an anonymous letter to kill PM Mulroney, blast the Toronto
subway system, movie theatres, commercial malls, says an RCMP letter, National
Post reported on Friday.
The letter to a counterpart at the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service is among thousands of secret papers just released
as part of the massive disclosure.
Parmar was arrested in 1986, along with five
Hamilton members of Babbar Khalsa, and charged with plotting acts of terror.
They were later acquitted.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had in a
letter warned that there might be other acts of retaliation in Canada because
of a series or arrests in different cases.
Recent law enforcement actions in fact may
cause an escalation in violence on the part of Sikhs sympathetic to the Khalistan
movement, says the letter, signed by Chief Superintendent J A N Belanger.
"It is our concern that all necessary action is taken to prevent the
commission of further criminal offences by Sikh extremists in this country.
It is considered critical that our two agencies co-operate closely in this
regard so that our resources are effectively deployed and there is no duplication
of effort or inadequate coverage on any issue," the letter said.
Whether CSIS-RCMP co-operation was adequate
at the time is a key part of the mandate of the Air India inquiry, headed
by retired SC Justice John Major.
