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Kanishka trial witness reveals plot to kill Indira Gandhi
Vancouver, Mar 31: A prosecution witness in the Air India bombing trial said on Tuesday he donated money to a plot by terrorists to kill then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Vancouver, Mar 31: A prosecution witness in the Air India bombing trial said on Tuesday he donated money to a plot by terrorists to kill then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The man, whose name is shielded by court order, is a witness against Ripudaman Singh Malik, one of two Sikh terrorists charged with murder in connection with the 1985 attacks on Air India airliners that killed 331 people.
The defence is attacking the man's claim that he turned down Malik's request that he carry a "time bomb" in a suitcase to Vancouver airport because he did not support the use of violence in India.
Under questioning by Malik's attorney, the man said he gave 300 Canadian dollars to help kill Gandhi at a 1984 meeting in Vancouver of Sikhs who wanted revenge for Indian Army's Operation Bluestar in Golden Temple in Amritsar.
"It was Indira Gandhi who ordered the attack. She should be killed, not other people," the man told the British Columbia Supreme Court in defending his motives.
Gandhi was assassinated by two bodyguards in October 1984. The Air India bombings are believed to have been in revenge for the attack on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The man said he donated the money at the request of Talwinder Singh Parmar, a founder of the terrorist group Babbar Khalsa. Parmar, who has also been linked to the Air India bombings, was killed by police in India in 1992.
The witness has added an element of surprise to the trial that began in April 2003 because he did not contact police with his story about Malik until late last year after reading news reports about the case. The man acknowledged he was aware that another witness had testified he had also turned down a request by Malik to carry a suitcase on to an Air India jet.
Police allege terrorists based in Vancouver used a time bomb in a suitcase to blow up Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people in history's deadliest bombing of a civilian airliner.
Another bomb intended to destroy a second Air India jet over the Pacific at the same time exploded prematurely on the ground, killing two Tokyo airport workers.
Malik and co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri have denied any involvement in the bombings.
The defence is attacking the man's claim that he turned down Malik's request that he carry a "time bomb" in a suitcase to Vancouver airport because he did not support the use of violence in India.
Under questioning by Malik's attorney, the man said he gave 300 Canadian dollars to help kill Gandhi at a 1984 meeting in Vancouver of Sikhs who wanted revenge for Indian Army's Operation Bluestar in Golden Temple in Amritsar.
"It was Indira Gandhi who ordered the attack. She should be killed, not other people," the man told the British Columbia Supreme Court in defending his motives.
Gandhi was assassinated by two bodyguards in October 1984. The Air India bombings are believed to have been in revenge for the attack on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
The man said he donated the money at the request of Talwinder Singh Parmar, a founder of the terrorist group Babbar Khalsa. Parmar, who has also been linked to the Air India bombings, was killed by police in India in 1992.
The witness has added an element of surprise to the trial that began in April 2003 because he did not contact police with his story about Malik until late last year after reading news reports about the case. The man acknowledged he was aware that another witness had testified he had also turned down a request by Malik to carry a suitcase on to an Air India jet.
Police allege terrorists based in Vancouver used a time bomb in a suitcase to blow up Air India Flight 182 off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people in history's deadliest bombing of a civilian airliner.
Another bomb intended to destroy a second Air India jet over the Pacific at the same time exploded prematurely on the ground, killing two Tokyo airport workers.
Malik and co-defendant Ajaib Singh Bagri have denied any involvement in the bombings.