Talwinder Singh Parmar

....Talwinder Singh Parmar spent more than a year in hiding in the caves in the mountainous Frontier area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan as the Canadian Sikh national of Indian origin came under scanner and pressure of the global security agencies. This area has been known to be no man’s land for centuries.....Babbar Khalsa arranged a safe place for him in the caves on Pakistan-Afghanistan border.......

Chandigarh, September 11, 2020: After a Canadian think-tank released a report asserting that Khalistan movement was a geopolitical project nurtured by Pakistan which threatens the national security of Canadians and Indians, the focus is back on the dark days of terrorism in Punjab and moves being made by extremists to revive it again.

ALSO READ: Khalistan a project nurtured by Pakistan, says Canadian think-tank

The author of the report veteran journalist Terry Milewski mentions the bombing of Air India’s Boeing 747 ‘Kanishka’ airliner, writing, “It might seem surprising that 35 years after Khalistani extremists bombed Air India Flight 182, the deadliest attack on aviation before 9/11 that a new generation of violent extremists has now emerged in Canada and India".

One of the persons involved in the bombing of the plane was Talwinder Singh Parmar.

Babbar Khalsa provided safe house to Parmar, who was the mastermind of the plane's bombing, in the caves on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan that virtually is a no-man’s land.

This revelation has alredy been made in the new book on Punjab militancy “Rivers on Fire — Khalistan Struggle” by Chandigarh based journalist Jagtar Singh.

As per this book, Parmar admitted his role in the bombing of Kanishka while maintaining the objective was not to kill people but hit Indian economy by targeting Air India. It was the timing that went wrong as the plane was delayed in Canada. As per the timing, the bomb was to explode after the plane landed in London.

The Babbar Khalsa leaders operating from Pakistan made the disclosure on Kanishka as pre-condition for arranging his protection. He formally joined the Babbar Khalsa after that.

Excerpts from the book

One of the most tragic incidents associated with the Sikh struggle that caught global attention was bombing of Air India Kanishka Flight 182 that exploded mid-air over Atlantic Ocean near Irish coast on the fateful June 23 of 1985 killing all 329 people aboard the Boeing 747-237 B that was on Toronto-Montreal-London-New Delhi route.

It emerged years later that the design was not to kill people but hit India’s economy by targeting this national carrier.  India’s economy was to be strategically targeted under this design to avenge Operation Bluestar. The action went horribly wrong. The explosive device was timed to explode after the plane had landed in London. The tragedy was collateral damage.

It was an action carried out by the people associated with Babbar Khalsa International based in Canada at their own but not by this militant organisation per se.

At another level in the Sikh circles in Canada, this tragedy is perceived to be the operation of the Indian agencies to defame the Sikh struggle globally.

According to the information now available, this operation was master-minded by Talwinder Singh Parmar who was killed years later by the Punjab police. Parmar spent more than a year in hiding in the caves in the mountainous Frontier area of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan as the Canadian Sikh national of Indian origin came under scanner and pressure of the global security agencies. This area has been known to be no man’s land for centuries.

Parmar was finally named in the report of public inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Johan Major released on 17 June 2010 but not conclusively. The commission expressed the view that “Talwinder Singh Parmar was the leader of the Babbar Khalsa, a pro-Khalistan organisation at the heart of radical extremism, and it is now believed that he was the leader of the conspiracy to bomb Air India flights”. All those arrested were subsequently acquitted by the court in the absence of concrete evidence.

Air India Boeing 747 Kanishka : Photo Credit : CC BY-SA 3.0

Parmar shared the details with Babbar Khalsa leaders in Pakistan in 1990 at the time of his formal induction as the vice-president of the organisation and member of the Panthic Committee.

As per the information, on target were two flights, the other being Air India Flight 301 from Tokyo to Bangkok for which the baggage carrying the time bomb was booked on Toronto-Tokyo Canada Pacific Flight 003 at Vancouver. The bomb on this plane exploded at New Tokyo Narita airport killing two Japanese porters shifting the luggage to Air India flight.

The explosion at Narita took place about an hour before Kanishka went down. Both the bombs were timed to explode after the planes had landed. The luggage was to be transferred to Air India flight at Narita.  Kanishka got an hour and 40 minutes late because of a spare engine that was installed at Toronto under its left wing to be flown to India as per the normal practice. (CBC Digital Archives, June 23, 1985 programme). 

Another newspaper report stated: “A bomb on board was primed to explode on the runway at Heathrow during a refuelling stop. However, there was a delay of over two hours before take-off”.  (The Irish Times, November 11, 2000).  The Washington Post reported: “The plane had taken off late from Toronto Saturday night, and was again delayed in Montreal”. (The Washington Post, June 24, 1985). All calculations of the conspirators went wrong due to this unforeseen delay that resulted in unprecedented tragedy. In case the take-off had not been delayed, the bomb would have exploded at London airport after the landing.

Parmar was arrested in Canada in this case in November 1985 but released in January 1986 due to lack of evidence. He was arrested again in June 1986 but released in May 1987. He left Canada again in May, 1988 as investigations progressed and the noose started tightening around him.

The Canadian investigators finally traced the case from probe into Narita explosion in collaboration with the Japanese authorities. Canada requested UK to extradite Inderjit Singh Reyat who was arrested on 5 February 1988.  He had shifted from Canada to UK some months after the Kanishka tragedy. He was finally flown to Vancouver on 13 December 1989 to be tried there. It was Reyat’s re-arrest that alarmed Parmar who contacted his associates in Babbar Khalsa seeking protection.

It is pertinent to mention that he was heading a splinter group of his own as Babbar Khalsa (Talwinder) when he planned these two bombings.

Babbar Khalsa arranged a safe place for him in the caves on Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Parmar stayed in India for about a year and went to Bangkok through Nepal in summer of 1992. He was there for about 2 months before heading to Europe. It was during this period that he parted company with Babbar Khalsa again.

He contacted Babbar dissidents in Europe to rope them into his new outfit. He again went to Pakistan from Europe. One of his earlier associates from Canada-Sarmukh Singh- was with him throughout this period.

He stayed in Pakistan and sought recognition as Babbar Khalsa (Talwinder) from that country. The authorities were reluctant as Pakistan was not in favour of split among these people. He came to India via Nepal after a short stay in Pakistan and settled in Mohali, the Punjab town bordering Chandigarh.

He started mobilising his own network in India. He went to Jammu in the first week of October to meet his contact there who was retired Major Nanak Singh. It was during one such visit that he finally got trapped. His associates from Europe called him on October 4 at Nanak’s phone. Talwinder told that man to call him again the next day.

That man called up on 5th but none picked up the phone. He got suspicious.

Major Nanak Singh had told his associates in Canada later that Parmar had gone to Srinagar from Jammu and returned next day.

As per his version, Parmar was picked up from bus stand in Jammu as he got down the bus on suspicion as security was tight that day due to a bomb blast in the city.

Nanak claimed that he met Parmar in the police station. He said that it was his offer of hefty bribe (in lacs) to the police station incharge for his release that made him suspicious. Parmar had managed to telephone Nanak with the help of a policeman about the situation in which he had landed inadvertently.

The Jammu police got in touch with Punjab. He was identified by Punjab police that took over his custody. Nanak claimed that the Jammu police started harassing him. It was at that point that Parmar’s associates in Canada told him to move out and provided him financial assistance.

He shifted to Delhi for some time from where he moved to Belgium in 1993 to land finally in Canada via Bangkok. The organisation realised later that Nanak had double-crossed.

However, official sources in the know of Parmar’s movement maintain he had taken the Chhamb route to enter India that time. He stayed for some time with a contact at Jammu and went to Srinagar. It was at Jammu that he came under the radar of Intelligence Bureau.

The man handling this operation at that time was Ajit Doval who was IG incharge of operations in Kashmir in IB. Doval passed on the information to Punjab Director General of Police K P S Gill who assigned the task to the Jalandhar police. An officer of the level of superintendent of police from Punjab coordinated with the IB.

Additional DGP O P Sharma, who headed Punjab intelligence, later protested for having been kept out of the loop. Operation Parmar was carried out by Doval and Gill.

It was a person known to Parmar from Goraya area nick-named ‘Sarpanch’ who had come in contact with IB. This man used to contact Parmar through a Chandigarh based person known as ‘Professor’. This so called professor too was known to be IB mole.  It was the Goraya man who was in touch with Parmar before the encounter.

The Punjab police was passed on the information about the movement of two Maruti cars. The operation was further assigned to a deputy superintendent of police and the station house officer of that area. The two cars were intercepted by this police party.

The Canadian authorities visited Punjab after this encounter to get details. Yet another visit by RCMP officials was in 2007 as the investigation in Kanishka blast proceeded on Parmar’s role. It was during this visit that the Canadian officials met the DSP.

Here is the official version of the encounter: “Giving the details,  the Director General of Police, Mr K P S Gill, told newsmen here (Jalandhar) that the Naka party posted at Kangrain village in Phillaur sub division  intercepted two Maruti cars coming from Akalpura. The occupants of the cars, finding no escape route, started firing at the naka party. The police not only returned the fire but also chased them. The car occupants left the cars and ran to the fields. But the police gunned down three of the fleeing suspects in exchange of fire. The remaining three suspects entered the fields and hid themselves there. But when the police surrounded the fields and fired, the hiding suspects also returned the fire which continued for two hours”.

“The police started search operations immediately after the firing from the fields stopped and recovered six bodies. Three of the suspects were identified as Talwinder Singh Parmar, the originator of terrorism in Punjab, and two Pakistani nationals Habibullah Khan and Inkhab Ahmed Zia, residents of Lahore. Two passports bearing Nos H-822669 and E-090696 of Islamic Republic of Pakistan were also recovered. The police also recovered one all-purpose machine gun, three AK-47 assault rifles, one rocket, one rocket launcher, one drum magazine and five magazines of AK 47 rifles”. (The Indian Express, October 16, 1092).

“Mr Gill said this was for the first time that the Punjab police had obtained first hand evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in aiding abetting militancy in Punjab”.

There is no mention of any policeman having been injured despite the fact that the Parmar group was heavily armed with such sophisticated weapons.

Here is the other version from sources about the two Pakistani nationals.

The two Pakistanis were from Lahore with genuine passports. One of them was a hospital employee and the other a Kashmiri settled there. The hospital employee had come in contact with Babbar Khalsa activist Gurdip Singh Sibia in London. Sibia finally surrendered in 1992 to Punjab police. That surrender is a different story.  This man rang up Mahal Singh in Lahore from Delhi as he had the information that Sibia too was in India and he wanted to meet him. He gave his Delhi address to be given to Sibia. Mahal telephoned Sibia at his hide out in Ahmedabad.

Sibia was in the custody of Intelligence Bureau by that time but he was asked to behave normally with his contacts. He was under constant watch and this was not known to the Babbar Khalsa people. He was shown to have surrendered and produced before newsmen in Chandigarh in the presence of chief minister Beant Singh on August 13, 1992.

The police raided the address where the two Pakistanis were staying and picked them up. They were detained in July.

Two others shown to have been killed in encounter were Sikh hardliners from Belgium and had been taken into custody by the security agencies after they landed at Delhi airport. They were not in touch with Talwinder earlier.

It may be mentioned that one other person who accompanied Parmar from Canada  subsequently returned to Canada. He had joined him when he was inducted formally in Babbar Khalsa.

Jagtar Singh Author of book " Rivers on Fire "