VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Police have sent a long-awaited report to government prosecutors so they can assess whether charges will be filed in the terrorist bombing of an Air India jetliner in 1985.
All 329 people on board Air India Flight 182, including 280 Canadians, were killed when the plane, bound from Canada to London, blew up over the coast of Ireland.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been hunting for the bombers since then, in what the force calls the most complex investigation of its history.
In a news release Thursday, the RCMP said the submission of the report to prosecutors does not mean the filing of charges is imminent. No time frame was set for the review process, and police declined to any details about their evidence.
The RCMP has faced repeated criticism from relatives of the victims who have complained the investigation has dragged on too long.
Police believe a group of Sikh separatists living in British Columbia planned to blow up two Air India jets as part of a terrorist campaign against the Indian government. The separatists were working to establish an independent Sikh homeland.
In June 1985, two bomb-laden suitcases were checked in for flights destined to connect with two Air India flights.
The first bomb exploded at Tokyo’s Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers who were unloading a Canadian Pacific flight from Vancouver. Less than an hour later, Flight 182 — which also originated in Vancouver — exploded.
Inderjit Singh Reyat, an electrician from Vancouver Island, is serving 10 years for manslaughter in connection with the Narita deaths. He has been identified as a suspect in the Flight 182 bombing.