Over four decades after a bomb exploded aboard Air India Flight 182, killing 329 people, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Ottawa’s primary intel agency, has for the first time ever, explicitly blamed Canada-based Khalistani terrorists for planting the explosive device. While New Delhi has maintained since day one that the 1985 tragedy was a Khalistani plot, Ottawa had historically avoided naming the movement in its public memorials.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday commemorating the tragedy, CSIS directly attributed the attack to the separatist movement. The agency stated, “On June 23, 1985, a bomb planted by Canada-based Khalistani extremists destroyed the aircraft, killing everyone on board — most of them Canadians. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Canada’s history and a defining moment for our national security community.”
The bombing of Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 nicknamed Emperor Kanishka, en route from Toronto to Mumbai, remains the worst terrorist attacks in Canadian history and was the world’s deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The explosion, caused by a bomb planted in the luggage compartment by members of the banned Khalistani group, Babbar Khalsa, tore the aircraft apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all passengers and crew on board. In 2005, Canada officially designated the anniversary of the tragedy, June 23, as the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism.
CSIS’s decision to explicitly blame the Khalistani movement comes just months after the agency released its annual report flagging Khalistani extremists as a potent national security threat. In that report, CSIS warned that Canada-based Khalistani extremist (CBKE) groups are actively using Canadian soil to “promote their violent extremist agenda” as well as fund and orchestrate “violent activities”.
Canada has for decades refused to pay heed to New Delhi’s concerns that Ottawa was sheltering and enabling Khalistani activities, long after the movement itself fizzled out in India.
Successive Canadian administrations, most notably that of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — consistently clashed with India over the issue, with the Trudeau government going as far as to accuse New Delhi of orchestrating a campaign of violent transnational repression against Canadian citizens. But with Canadian agencies finally waking up to the threat posed by Khalistani networks that have been allowed to operate for so long on their soil, India’s stance finally seems to have been vindicated.
WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR CANADA TO BLAME KHALISTANIS FOR THE AIR INDIA DISASTER?
Before examining why Canada’s recent acknowledgement of Khalistani involvement in the Air India bombing matters to India, it is crucial to ask why it took Ottawa more than four decades to arrive at this point.
The delay stems primarily from a catastrophic failure within Canada’s security apparatus. A 2010 public inquiry, led by former Supreme Court Justice John Major, concluded that a “cascading series of errors” happened by national agencies, which severely undermined the case.
Most damningly, an intense turf war between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) paralysed the investigation. While CSIS had actively monitored Babbar Khalsa leader Talwinder Singh Parmar, the agency destroyed hundreds of hours of critical wiretap recordings — erasing evidence that could have secured swift criminal convictions.
Compounding this intelligence failure was a profound institutional apathy. Although 268 of the 329 victims were Canadian citizens, the attack was widely dismissed by politicians and the public as a distant “Indian” problem. This systemic bias stripped the investigation of political urgency, a failure later acknowledged by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2010, who noted that families were treated with institutional indifference.
Legal roadblocks further delayed accountability. Severe witness intimidation, including the targeted murders of key witnesses, hampered investigators for decades. When the landmark 2005 criminal trial collapsed in the high-profile acquittal of the main suspects due to a lack of evidence, a public outcry finally forced Ottawa to launch a full public enquiry.
While PM Harper formally apologised in 2010 for Canada’s institutional failings, official language remained carefully guarded. For years, government documents relied on vague euphemisms like “insurgents” or “unnamed extremists”. It took 16 more years for Ottawa to finally discard this ambiguity and explicitly designate “Canada-based Khalistani extremists” as the architects of Canada’s deadliest terrorist act.
WHY CANADA’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE KHALISTANI THREAT MATTERS FOR INDIA
The Khalistani movement, which originated in Punjab in the 1970s, has long since faded from the limelight in India; after decades of being involved in a bloody insurgency. Yet, the movement never really died out, with many committed Khalistanis over the years having fled to western countries, most prominently Canada to evade Indian law enforcement.
Within Canada, these fugitive Khalkistanis found a safe haven and fertile ground to spread their roots. This growth was accelerated by a unique combination of factors: a large, highly concentrated diaspora community receptive to their narrative, and a Canadian government that, until recently, refused to interfere with their operations, consistently shielding their activities under the banner of protecting “freedom of expression”.
This Canadian support for Khalistani groups operating on its soil had for decades proved a major roadblock in relations between Ottawa and New Delhi.
India has frequently accused Canada of turning a blind eye to Khalistani activists sponsoring “illegal activities including murders, human trafficking and organised crime” in India. Proceeds from these crimes, according to India’s government, sustain a campaign of what Indian officials call terrorism in the name of a religious political movement.
These simmering tensions finally came to a head under the administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. An early flashpoint occurred during Trudeau’s rocky 2018 visit to India, when his delegation inadvertently invited Jaspal Atwal — a Sikh Canadian convicted of the 1986 attempted assassination of Punjabi minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu — to an official state reception.
The diplomatic fallout peaked when Trudeau stood up in Canada’s Parliament to accuse Indian intelligence agencies, specifically the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of orchestrating the assassination of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil, setting off an unprecedented standoff between the two nations.
The Mark Carney administration, however, finally seems to be turning a page in the Canadian state’s perception of the Khalistan movement.
In its 2025 public report published in March this year, Ottawa’s primary intelligence agency, the CSIS for the first time ever, flagged the existence of “Canada-based Khalistani extremist (CBKE) groups” as a national security threat. The report noted that the “ongoing involvement in violent extremist activities by CBKEs continues to pose a national security threat to Canada and to Canadian interests.”
Even more damningly, the CSIS acknowledged that Canada-based Khalistanis were actively leveraging Canadian institutions to advance their own ends. “Some CBKEs are well-connected to Canadian citizens who leverage Canadian institutions to promote their violent extremist agenda and collect funds from unsuspecting community members that are then diverted toward violent activities,” the report read.
On Wednesday, the CSIS officially acknowledged the role of Khalistanis behind Canada’s deadliest ever terror attack. For all intents and purposes, this is a vindication of India’s long-running stance that Canada had blindly sheltered violent extremist groups within its own soil.
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