Kanishka bombing anniversary
Excelsior Correspondent
DUBLIN (IRELAND), June 23: Union Minister Hardeep Puri on Monday called for closing down funding channels to terrorists and separatists and doubling efforts to unitedly combat the global menace as he paid tribute to the victims of the Air India Flight 182 Kanishka bombing on its 40th anniversary.
The Montreal-London-New Delhi Air India ‘Kanishka’ Flight 182 exploded 45 minutes before it was supposed to land at UK’s Heathrow Airport on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 people on board, most of them Canadians of Indian descent.
Puri, the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, was joined by Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree to pay tribute to the Kanishka victims at the Ahakista Memorial in County Cork, about 260 kilometres southwest from here.
“On behalf of the people and Government of India, a 7-member delegation led by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep S Puri paid tribute to the victims at the Ahakista Memorial in County Cork, Ireland,” said a post on X by the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
BJP National General Secretary and Incharge J&K, Tarun Chugh; BJP MLA from R S Pura Assembly constituency, Narinder Singh were among the delegation that paid tribute to the victims.
“Today in Cork, Ireland, along with Hon’ble Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and legislators from five Indian states, will shortly join Irish PM Micheál Martin & Canadian Minister Gary Anandasangaree to pay tribute to the 329 innocent lives lost in the 1985 Kanishka bombing. We stand united against terrorism,” said Tarun Chugh in a post on X, shared minutes before joining the tribute ceremony.
Puri in his speech thanked the “wonderful community of Ahakista and the people of Ireland,” who he said, rose to the occasion when the accident happened 40 years ago.
“This memorial stands testimony to the tragedy of that crash on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean not far from here,” he said.
“Irrespective of the differences in ideologies and political differences, we need to be vigilant about terrorism and united in combating the menace,” he said on X.
Asserting that time has come to close off the funding channels of terrorists and separatists mindsets, so that there is no scope for extremism, Puri said in another post on X, “We need to double our efforts to ensure that what happened on June 23, 1985 is not repeated anywhere in the world in future.”
“It was a privilege to attend the commemoration to mark 40 years since the Air India disaster in West Cork. 329 innocent people lost their lives over the skies of Ireland that morning, and the passing of time does not dim the scale of loss and of this atrocity,” Micheal Martin said in a post on X.
According to The Air India Flight 182 Archive, maintained by the McMaster University, the Ahakista memorial was unveiled on June 23, 1986, at the first anniversary of the bombing and consists of a garden, a sundial, and a rounded stone wall inscribed with the names of each person who died.
Family members of the passengers and crew of the plane gather every year at various memorials set for the victims.
According to RTE, the Irish public service broadcaster, some 60 relatives of the victims were represented at the annual ceremony on Monday in Ahakista near Bantry, the nearest point on land to the crash site.
“The ceremony at the memorial monument began with a minute’s silence at 8.13 am, the exact time the explosion occurred on Air India Flight 182. It was followed by tributes from the families and Hindu and Christian readings,” it said in a report.
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