Sep 18, 2026 18:52 pm IST

Blog | I Lost My Entire Family In Kanishka Bombing. 41 Years Later, Canada Wants The Case Closed

We made the trek through tragedy to search for people in Cork, where I spent 25 days sifting through bodies and body parts in a makeshift morgue to identify our loved ones.

Sanjay Lazar Sanjay Lazar Columnist

Sanjay Lazar Columnist

The horror of the Air India 182 Kanishka tragedy isn't easy to forget. Even today, 41 years after the world's worst aviation bombing, the families of the Air India 182 Kanishka victims have been shaken by suggestions from the RCMP in Canada that the investigation should be wound up.

On June 23, 1985, two bombs exploded. One at Narita airport killed two baggage handlers; the other, 54 minutes later, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, 90 miles out to sea from Cork, Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including 86 children under the age of 13.

Orphaned as a teenager and losing my entire family at 17, I began the struggle for justice and accountability. As families, we made the trek through tragedy to search for people in Cork, where I spent 25 days sifting through bodies and body parts in a makeshift morgue to identify our loved ones.

That trauma was revisited every anniversary as no leads were forthcoming. In June 1995, the Canadian government announced a reward of $1 million for information leading to the arrest of the conspirators, but the fear was so rife among Canadians that not a peep came in.

Delays And A Failed Trial

It took almost 18 years for charges to be filed in 2000, only for a multi-million-dollar trial to fail to convict the accused. Witness after witness had either been murdered (while in RCMP protection, no less) or intimidated beyond the pale, or had their children's lives threatened. They all developed selective amnesia in the dock.

The fact that most of the witnesses were identified only by letters - Ms A, D, E, etc. - itself indicates the level of secrecy and the extent to which the witness protection programme failed in the Air India 182 case and in dealing with the Khalistani extremists.

Discriminatory Treatment

The discriminatory attitude of the Canadian system towards the victims of the Air India bombing in 1985 was brutally exposed by Justice Major.........

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