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CSIS `underestimated` immigrant`s ability to carry out Kanishka bombing
Vancouver, June 06: Canadian intelligence officials `underestimated` the ability of the immigrant Sikh separatist to carry out a bombing and the Kanishka tragedy could have been averted had they `recognised` the sound of a bomb exploding when the homemade device was tested.
Vancouver, June 06: Canadian intelligence officials "underestimated" the ability of the immigrant Sikh separatist to carry out a bombing and the Kanishka tragedy could have been averted had they "recognised" the sound of a bomb exploding when the homemade device was tested.
A senior official in the counter terrorism branch of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) conceded in an internal memo recently that the agents underestimated the ability of Sikh community members to carry out a bombing.
He admitted one year after the Air-India disaster that its agents could have prevented the deaths of 331 people if they had recognised the sound of a bomb exploding when the homemade device was tested by those accused, media reported.
The memo is the first indication that, a year after the disaster, CSIS recognised that it might have made a mistake and might have been able to prevent the deaths.
Before the explosions in Tokyo and aboard Air-India flight 182 on June 23, 1985, Vancouver Sikh leader Talwinder Singh Parmar was under CSIS surveillance as part of the protection for Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister of India, on a visit to New York.
On June 4, 1985, CSIS agents followed Parmar and auto mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat to a quarry in a wooded area on Vancouver island.
The top official, whose name must remain secret under a court order, stated in a memo dated July 16, 1986, that the agents heard a loud explosion they believed a high-calibre gun had been fired, 'The Globe and Mail' reported today.
They later concluded the incident was a test run for a homemade bomb used in the Air-India disaster.
Bureau Report
He admitted one year after the Air-India disaster that its agents could have prevented the deaths of 331 people if they had recognised the sound of a bomb exploding when the homemade device was tested by those accused, media reported.
The memo is the first indication that, a year after the disaster, CSIS recognised that it might have made a mistake and might have been able to prevent the deaths.
Before the explosions in Tokyo and aboard Air-India flight 182 on June 23, 1985, Vancouver Sikh leader Talwinder Singh Parmar was under CSIS surveillance as part of the protection for Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister of India, on a visit to New York.
On June 4, 1985, CSIS agents followed Parmar and auto mechanic Inderjit Singh Reyat to a quarry in a wooded area on Vancouver island.
The top official, whose name must remain secret under a court order, stated in a memo dated July 16, 1986, that the agents heard a loud explosion they believed a high-calibre gun had been fired, 'The Globe and Mail' reported today.
They later concluded the incident was a test run for a homemade bomb used in the Air-India disaster.
Bureau Report