Vancouver (British Columbia), Sept 11: A key witness in the Air India bombing trial testified on Wednesday that he was asked by a Sikh militant to make an explosive device before the 1985 blasts that killed 331 people. Tight security enveloped the special courtroom where Inderjit Singh Reyat took the stand for the first time in the trial of two alleged co-conspirators accused of involvement in what was considered one of the worst terrorist bombings of an airliner.

Reyat, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February and was sentenced to five years in prison, acknowledged knowing the two defendants - Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik - for years in the Sikh community of Vancouver. Bagri and Malik each face eight counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in connection with the June 1985 blast that killed 329 people on flight 182 from Montreal to London. The charges also include the deaths of two baggage handlers in a separate explosion 53 minutes earlier at Tokyo's Narita Airport. Prosecutors say the bombing was carried out by Sikh militants agitating for an independent homeland in India. It occurred after Indian troops attacked the Golden Temple of Amritsar, Sikhdom's holiest site, in 1984. Bureau Report