TORONTO: Seven Indian Sikhs face a court hearing Monday on charges that police sources claim involve a violent plot to bomb several targets in India, including the Parliament buildings.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested the men, including Jathedar Talwinder Singh, the founder of Babbar Khalsa, in raids Saturday in three provinces.
They were scheduled to appear at a bail hearing Monday in. provincial count in Hamilton, about 40 miles west of Toronto. All were charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offense. “Security will be a little tighter than normal,” a police official said Sunday.
Authorities released few details but police sources said the arrests were in connection with a planned campaign in India, where Sikh freedom fighters have waged battle for an independent homeland in the northern state of Punjab.
“There was a rather elaborate plan set up.” said one police official. “I know the Indian Parliament buildings were included. There were other targets planned in India and it wasn’t limited to the Parliament buildings.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the men were arrested after an investigation involving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and three city police forces.
Arrests were made in Hamilton: Brampton, which is north of Toronto, and the western city of Kamloops, British Columbia.
The Indian government has pressed Canada to extradite Jathedar Talwinder Singh Parmer on charges of murdering two policemen in a Punjab village.
Parmar also was one of two men arrested last November after an investigation into the suspected bombing of an Air-India jumbo jet, which crashed off the Irish coast last June 23, killing all 327 people on board.
He was charged with possession of explosives, although charges were later dropped for lack of evidence.
The Air-India crash is officially unsolved and Canadian police never tied either man to that incident.
Parmar’s son said police gave no details to family members after arresting him in Hamilton.
Also charged were Rampal Si ngh Dhillon, 27, of Brampton, Sadhu Singh Thiara, 44, Tejinder Singh Kaloe, 35, Sumukh Singh Lakhain, 32, and Daljit Singh Doel, all of Hamilton. In Kamoops, police arrested Ajaib Singh Bagei, 27.
Canada’s 200,000 member Sikhs recently received widespread attention.
Two weeks ago, the Moui arrested five men in Montreal in what the FBI said was a plot t0 bomb an Air-India Boeing 747 flying out of New York. A week earlier, four Sikhs were arrested after a visiting Punjab Cabinet Minister was shot and wounded when his car was forced off the road near Vancouver, British Columbia.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 20, 1986
