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A disciple of alleged mastermind of bombing
By Kim Bolan Ajaib Singh Bagri was a mill worker in Kamloops, B.C., when he embraced the cause of Sikh separatism and joined the violent separatist group Babbar Khalsa. The 51-year-old soon became a close associate and disciple of Talwinder Singh Parmar, the alleged mastermind of the Air-India bombing and founder of Babbar Khalsa, acting as his right-hand man throughout the 1980s until Mr. Parmar slipped out of Canada in 1988 to base himself in Pakistan. Mr. Parmar was killed in Punjab in 1992.
Mr. Bagri has been described as hot-headed and confrontational by the police, Canadian security agents and reporters who have visited him over the years. According to the report of the Indian government probe of the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Bagri regularly threatened terrorist attacks against Indian targets when addressing supporters in Canada. Speaking at a Baisakhi procession out of the Ross Street Sikh temple in April, 1989, Mr. Bagri threatened the Prime Minister directly, according to the report. "Rajiv, your mother has been killed and now it is your turn," Mr. Bagri told the cheering crowd. The report also says Mr. Bagri told fellow Babbar Khalsa members in 1989 that Mr. Parmar was "trying to procure certain expensive items of arms and ammunition like missiles." Indian intelligence believed that Mr. Bagri and Mr. Parmar, along with other Babbar Khalsa members and the International Sikh Youth Federation, were plotting to assassinate Mr. Gandhi. Like his mentor, Mr. Parmar, Mr. Bagri usually dresses in the 17th-century costume of a Nihang warrior, always wearing a saffron turban to symbolize his commitment to his religion. He remains politically active, both within the Sikh community and in mainstream politics. With his followers in Kamloops, he has kept Babbar Khalsa as a registered non-profit society in British Columbia, although it lost its Revenue Canada charitable status after some politicians complained about its links to terrorism in the mid-1990s. Mr. Bagri recently signed up about 200 new members to the B.C. Liberals to oppose Dr. Gur Singh, a moderate Sikh who narrowly lost the party's nomination in Kamloops to Claude Richmond. Mr. Bagri, who travels frequently to the Vancouver Lower Mainland for religious and political functions, is spearheading the construction of a new Sikh temple in Kamloops. He owns a house, worth almost $340,000, on a half-acre lot in the central B.C. city, according to property records. Mr. Bagri was convicted of theft in Kamloops provincial court in 1993 under bizarre circumstances. He accompanied another man to a Kamloops food store, where Mr. Bagri's companion attacked a store worker with a chain and ripped a medallion from his neck and threw it to the ground. Mr. Bagri then picked up the necklace and was charged with theft. He lost an appeal of his conviction in 1995. Asked about the Air-India bombing in an interview two years ago, Mr. Bagri said he did not understand why the police would not leave him alone. "I think it is just talk," Mr. Bagri said of rumours the Air-India investigation was close to making arrests. "I don't think it is going to lead anywhere. It's just blah, blah, blah. Why are they bugging Sikhs all the time?" And he insisted Babbar Khalsa has never been more than a service organization. "We never do anything like terrorism," Mr. Bagri said. "We are just doing religious work like a lot of societies." Source: The Vancouver Sun October 28, 2000
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