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AIR INDIA INQUIRY WILL LOOK INTO TEHELKA REPORT ON TALWINDER SINGH PARMAR
The Tehelka (www.tehelka.com) report on a former Punjab police officer claiming that he arrested and interrogated prime Air India bombing suspect Talwinder Singh Parmar before he was ordered killed by senior police officials confirms what The VOICE has been saying for years:
(1) that Indian police extracted all the information they required from Parmar before killing him (and so they really didn't care what Canada did about the other alleged plotters); and
(2) that convicted bomb maker Inderjit Singh Reyat knows who the mysterious Third Man - who accompanied Parmar to his house, stayed with him and later took the bombs from him - is.
On the other hand, it is very difficult, indeed, impossible to determine what the roles of various alleged plotters were or even the true extent of their involvement because there are so many claims and counter-claims by people who say they know this or that for sure. Then there are those who want all this confusion to protect those who were really involved in the plot.
Also, it is impossible to say to what extent the Indian intelligence services and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service were involved in the plot or how much they really knew or know. Did they have a mole or moles? Who was the mole (or moles)?
Anyway, the head of the Air India inquiry, former Supreme Court justice John Major told the media that he will look into this report when the hearings resume.
The Globe and Mail's Robert Matas was the first to report about the Tehelka report on Monday.
The Tehelka report said that retired Punjab Police Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Harmail Singh Chandi, who reportedly arrested Parmar in the Jammu region of the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in September, 1992, did not destroy Parmar's confession record although he was instructed to do that.
In the confession, Parmar named Lakhbir Singh Brar "Rode", nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and head of the banned International Sikh Youth Federation, as the mastermind of the bombing. Rode, who is now believed to be in Lahore, Pakistan.
Tehelka reported that Chandi produced all the evidence - including audio-tapes - before the RCMP and the John Major inquiry commission.
So apparently he was the mysterious witness who suddenly backed out from giving evidence at the Major inquiry.
However, when you go through Parmar's confession there are some points that you need to bear in mind. Both as the son of a former Indian Police Service officer and a crime reporter with The Times of India in New Delhi, I can tell you that Indian police extract confessions by third-degree methods that are nothing but horrible torture. That's a well-known fact and that is the reason why police there often don't report an arrest (by law they must bring the arrested person before a judge within 24 hours) because they first torture the person and then wait for the marks of torture and other related physical conditions to heal. Then they register the arrest officially and bring the person before a judge. Judges, too, have been known to turn a blind eye to visible marks of torture, especially in smaller towns. The victim, too, is often too scared to talk of the torture because he fears he will be tortured again!
So Parmar's confession could have been taped only after he agreed to say certain things that the cops wanted him to say. Also, he might have deliberately misled the cops to buy time, naively thinking that being a Canadian citizen he would not be killed.
According to the Tehlka report by Vikram Jit Singh, Parmar's confession states:
"Around May 1985, a functionary of the International Sikh Youth Federation came to me and introduced himself as Lakhbir Singh and asked me for help in conducting some violent activities to express the resentment of the Sikhs. I told him to come after a few days so that I could arrange for dynamite and battery etc. He told me that he would first like to see a trial of the blast ... After about four days, Lakhbir Singh and another youth, Inderjit Singh Reyat, both came to me. We went into the jungle (of British Columbia). There we joined a dynamite stick with a battery and triggered off a blast. Lakhbir and Inderjit, even at that time, had in their minds a plan to blast an aeroplane. I was not too keen on this plan but agreed to arrange for the dynamite sticks. Inderjit wanted to use for this purpose a transistor fitted with a battery...That very day, they took dynamite sticks from me and left.
"Then Lakhbir Singh, Inderjit Singh and their accomplice, Manjit Singh, made a plan to plant bombs in an Air India (AI) plane leaving from Toronto via London for Delhi and another flight that was to leave Tokyo for Bangkok. Lakhbir Singh got the seat booking done from Vancouver to Tokyo and then onwards to Bangkok, while Manjit Singh got it done from Vancouver to Toronto and then from Toronto to Delhi. Inderjit prepared the bags for the flights, which were loaded with dynamite bombs fitted with a battery and transistor. They decided that the suitcases will be booked but they themselves will not travel by the same flights although they will take the boarding passes. After preparing these bombs, the plan was ready for execution by June 21 or 22, 1985. However, the bomb to be kept in the flight from Tokyo to Delhi via Bangkok exploded at the Narita airport on the conveyor belt. The second suitcase that was loaded on the Toronto-Delhi air flight exploded in the air."
According to the Tehelka report, Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) principal investigator Sarabjit Singh said the PHRO's probe has shown that Parmar was killed to hide the name of Lakhbir, who was an Indian agent. He claimed that a plot was hatched to discredit the Sikh movement and that the Punjab Police got orders to eliminate Parmar because he knew too much about the main perpetrators.
Tehelka pointed out that although Lakhbir is accused in many acts of terrorism, he is wanted by the Indian government in only a minor case registered in Moga, Punjab.
The Globe and Mail's Robert Matas reported: "Lakhbir Singh Brar came to Canada in April, 1985, as a refugee. He was identified as a national security risk by Canada's security service and deported in the early 1990s."
Interestingly, Tehelka reported that when the police officer - Satish K. Kumar, who was a Senior Superintendent of Police at the time and is now an Inspector General of Police - who reportedly killed Parmar in an encounter, was asked about the charge that Parmar was murdered by the police, he shot back: "It was a clean encounter. The RCMP is bringing this up because they botched their investigations and failed to get convictions."
Interesting masala, eh!
this mite be the case as i sais before indian intelligence agencies involvement cannot be denied as a lot of security checks are required to plant a dynamite inside a plane and only sikh youth federation leaders (an organisation which cannot be stated as a subordinate f indian intelligence service or indian govt,) cannot perform this task on its own. lakhmir singh though stated to be leader of international of sikh youth federation might be undercover agent of indian intelligence services and could also be considered sikh according to indian constitution article no. 25...so it is quite possible that he with the backing of indian intelligence agencies would have done that massacre...obviously such a high scale incident is not a joke which 2--3 youngsters could do on their own...!
