A Sikh man has received a five-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the bombing of an Air India jet in 1985, which killed all the passengers on board.


The crash off the coast of Ireland killed 329 people

Inderjit Singh Reyat - who has British and Canadian citizenship - was charged by a Canadian court with 329 counts of manslaughter - one for each of the people who died in the blast.

Two other men also stand accused in connection with the bombing.



Inderjit Singh Reyat: Already jailed for Tokyo blast

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2746663.stm

Why are some Canadian Sikhs expressing solidarity with an unrepentant terrorist?

http://nationalpostcomment.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/iam.jpg?w=234&h=300

Today, Indian politicians stayed the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana, an unrepentant Sikh terrorist who masterminded the killing of Punjab Chief minister Beant Singh — and 17 others — in 1995. The suicide bomber who performed the deed was identified as Dilawar Singh. But Rajoana admits that he was the back-up bomber. Rajoana has made no real effort to defend himself in court, admits his crimes, and seems content to die as a martyr for his the cause of his Sikh terrorist group Babbar Khalsa. His execution, which politicians fear would create massive disturbances in the Punjab, would be India’s first since 2004.

Many Sikhs, including some here in Canada, have turned Rajoana into a hero figure — despite the facts that his target, Beant Singh, was himself a Sikh. Since Beant Singh was a Sikh moderate who took a leading role in suppressing radical Sikh insurgents, he is considered a blood traitor by radicals.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. As the Vancouver Sun‘s Kim Bolan has reported, a militant minority of Sikhs have marred B.C. Parades by displaying images of Air India mastermind (and Babbar Khalsa founder) Talwinder Singh Parmar; as well as Satwant Singh Bhaker, Indira Gandhi’s assassin; and the killers of Indian general Arunkumar Shridhar Vaidya. In many cases, naïve Canadian politicians, unable to read the Punjabi descriptions, have stood idly by clapping their hands as images of these “martyrs” rolled past.

In the case of Rajoana, the facts are more complicated, because many activists say that they merely oppose his execution — on the grounds that the death penalty is inhumane. This week, Jasbir Sandhu, NDP MP from Surrey North, reportedly got an ovation from Parliamentary peers when he implored Stephen Harper to protest India’s actions — citing opposition to the death penalty in general terms. Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh, arguing the same point, appeared to suggest that Ontario’s trade relationship with India might be used as leverage. Former Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal also has taken up the cause, addressing a rally on March 25.

More disturbing than this are the grass-roots Canadian Sikh groups that appear to be openly identifying with Rajoana’s cause. A poster for a March 29 Toronto-area rally, for instance, is headlined “I am Rajoiana” (see above). My Sikh sources tell me that the organizers bussing Sikhs from Toronto, Hamilton Brampton, Windsor and Montreal to a major rally today in Ottawa today are promoting similar propaganda in Punjabi. (One of the Toronto-area rally organizers, whose name appears on a separate Punjabi flyer promoting the event, is a Sikh Youth leader who reportedly is close to Dalton McGuinty.)

A poster declaring “I am Merah” or “I am Yigal Amir” would rightly be seen as scandalous. Even Tamil extremists would have had a hard time getting away with “I am Prabhakaran.” So why do Sikh extremists often get a free pass in this country — even after Air India awakened us to the problem?...

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/28/jonathan-kay-why-are-some-canadia...