By Gurmukh Singh, IANS
Toronto : The Air India public inquiry commission begins two days of public hearings Thursday. The commission is looking into the 1985 bombing of AI Flight 182, which killed 329 people.
After these public hearings, inquiry commissioner John major will start working on the final report, likely to be submitted this spring.
Those whom Major will hear include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Intelligence Security Service (CSIS) and Toronto University professor Sherene Razack.
Though some relatives of the Air India bombing victims were also expected to make their submissions, they decided against it.
Vancouver-based Pervez Madon, whose husband was among the 329 victims of Flight 182 bombed mid-air on June 23, 1985, told IANS that her family would not attend the public hearings.
“We are very pleased with the way inquiry commissioner John major has conducted the probe. Everything has come out in the open. He has addressed our all long-pending grievances. So we have nothing more to present before him. We commend his work,” said Madon, who, along with her daughter Natasha, has been in the forefront of the fight for justice for the families of the victims.
No Toronto-based family of the victims confirmed whether they would be present at the final hearings.
A spokesperson for the inquiry commission in Ottawa also confirmed that the panel has received no fresh submissions from the families.
He said besides the Canadian security agencies (the RCMP and CSIS), the commission would hear Razack’s testimony.
Razack, who was commissioned by the families of the victims to carry out a study of the Air India investigations, had created a storm by alleging systemic discrimination in the probe.
She had submitted her report to the commission in December just before John Major presented his interim report to the government. In the interim report, he criticised Canadian agencies for their initial response to the tragedy and the government for “short changing” victims on compensation.
After the two-day hearings, the probe panel spokesman said, the commission would start work on the final report.
“Unlike the previous hearings, there will be no broadcast of last (two) days’ hearings,” he said.
Asked when the final report would be submitted, he said: “We cannot say anything. It is media speculation that it will be presented this spring. The commission has not committed itself to any date.”
The public inquiry was set up under pressure from the families of the victims who were outraged by the verdict the Air India trial that resulted in acquittal of both the suspects – Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri – in 2005.
They were accused of being part of a plot hatched by Sikh militant leader Talwinder Singh Parmar for bombing Air India to avenge the army action at the Golden Temple in 1984.
Only Inderjit Singh Reyat, who helped make the bombs aimed at Air India, has been jailed for what was till 9/11 the biggest aviation tragedy in history.