Kanishka bombing: Rajiv Gandhi had questioned lapses

TORONTO: In a phone call just after the bombing of the Air India plane in 1985, then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asked his Canadian counterpart why all the baggage on the flight was not removed and rechecked in Montreal when three pieces were found to be suspicious.

Rajiv Gandhi had suggested to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that Canada had breached international procedures by not re-screening all the luggage on Flight 182.

Details of the emotionally charged exchange were revealed on Wednesday in declassified government documents released at the judicial inquiry probing the June 23, 1985 bombing that killed 329 and a blast the same day at Tokyo’s Narita Airport that killed two.

A June 27 briefing document about the call says: “After our PM related his sympathies and condolences, Gandhi said he understood three suitcases had been pulled from Air India flight in Montreal and his understanding was that when such a thing happened, it was standard [international] practise that all suitcases would be searched, but this had not been done in this case,” the document says.