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Air-India Charges Struggles for
Sikh homeland spilled into Lower
Mainland By Rod Mickleburgh VANCOUVER -- The seeds of the Air-India terrorist bombing that claimed 331 lives were planted in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia in the early 1980s as militant Sikhs became caught up in the fight for a Sikh homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of the Indian region of Punjab. Increasingly, they turned to violence. A string of ruthless acts linked to extremists pressing for an independent Khalistan did not begin or end with the bombing. Many moderate area Sikhs who spoke out against their tactics were also targeted. Among the victims was current Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, then an activist lawyer, who survived a near-fatal beating months before the terrorist plot was hatched. One of the most recent attacks, nearly 14 years later, ended the life of Tara Singh Hayer, publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times and an outspoken critic of Sikh separatists and fundamentalists, who was gunned down as he returned home from work. Mr. Hayer's slaying came after an earlier attempted killing in 1988 that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of two Air-India suspects now in custody, was also charged Friday with Mr. Hayer's attempted murder. Other violent incidents linked to Khalistan advocates include the serious wounding of a Punjabi cabinet minister, shot in an ambush while visiting Vancouver Island in 1986, and an assassination attempt against Bikar Singh Dhillon, moderate former president of Vancouver's Ross Street temple, who was shot outside his home in 1991. As well, there have been many violent clashes between fundamentalist and moderate Sikhs over the years, as they vie for control of area Sikh temples. Inspiration for the increasingly fanatical separatist campaign was the charismatic Sikh fundamentalist leader Talwinder Singh Parmar, who lived in Burnaby, B.C., for much of the 1980s. Mr. Parmar was named by RCMP investigators last week as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Air-India bombing. He is universally regarded by those familiar with the case as the mastermind of the terrorist operation. Founder of the extremist Sikh separatist group Babbar Khalsa in 1982, Mr. Parmar died at the hands of Indian police in 1992, after slipping out of Canada four years earlier. He was 47. Published reports quote Mr. Parmar vowing violent revenge against India one month after the deadly 1984 assault by Indian troops against the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar. Air-India planes will "fall from the sky," Mr. Parmar is reported to have told a meeting of Sikh militants in Calgary. Hugh Johnston, who teaches Sikh history at Simon Fraser University, said emotional ties to a Punjabi homeland were much more prominent among a large influx of Sikh immigrants who came to the Lower Mainland during the 1970s than among earlier arrivals. "These Sikhs remained close to their rural and village origins in the Punjab," Mr. Johnston said. "Nineteen eight-four and 1985 were very emotional times for this particular Sikh community. The Lower Mainland was one major centre where you could expect to get a response to events in India." There were numerous ties between Mr. Parmar, Mr. Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik, the second Air-India suspect arrested Friday. A daughter of Mr. Bagri, who is considered Mr. Parmar's chief comrade-in-arms, is married to the late leader's son. Mr. Malik is believed to have provided legal and financial assistance to Mr. Parmar when he was imprisoned for nine months in Germany during an unsuccessful effort by India to extradite him on charges of murdering three police officers. Today, pictures of Mr. Parmar adorn many fundamentalist Sikh temples, where he is mourned as a martyr to the cause. Source: The Globe and Mail October 30, 2000, Monday.
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