Loss of faith.

• Author: Normey, Robert
• Position: Law and Literature

On the infamous day of June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 exploded in mid-air and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland. It killed all 329 people on board, making the bombing the largest mass murder in Canadian history. It was also the world's worst aviation terrorist attack prior to those of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington DC. Less than an hour earlier, a bomb in luggage intended for Air India Flight 301 exploded at the Narita Airport in Japan, killing two baggage handlers and inuring four others.

In Loss of Faith." How the Air India Bombers Got Away With Murder, Kim Bolan, an award-winning journalist who has covered the case from the day of the crash to the acquittal of two suspects twenty years later, recounts the bombing, the background to the terrorist plot, the investigation, and the trial. The book is essential reading for those wishing a better understanding of Canada's worst terrorist attack. It is an engrossing yet frustrating read.

Loss of Faith is an emotionally riveting account of the Air India disaster and the trial of Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri. These men were the prime suspects in the murder of 331 people in the twin 1985 bombings. The terrorist attacks were almost certainly the work of Sikh separatist extremists. They were a response to the storming of the main Sikh religious shrine, the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984. This was ordered by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was called Operation Blue Star. It is reported to have killed around 800 militants and 200 Indian government troops. The Golden Temple was damaged in the attack and sacred artifacts were destroyed.

In December 1983, the Golden Temple complex had been taken over by a charismatic Sikh preacher named Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed supporters. Militants demanding the creation of a Sikh state controlled the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. They controlled access to the temple. A tense standoff developed. Leaders of other militant Sikh groups, such as the Babbar Khalsa, were backing Bhindranwale. Some of Canadian leader Talwinder Singh Parmar's comrades in the Babbar Khalsa were holed up with the rebels, while others were agitating outside India for a separate Sikh state. Demonstrations took place in Vancouver.

Five months after the storming of the Golden Temple, two of Indira Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards assassinated her in her garden. Militant Sikh groups, including the Babbar...