WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — Marking the 40th anniversary of the Air India 182 bombing, families of victims, journalists, and researchers gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to remember those lost, while discussing the ongoing threat of extremist violence tied to Khalistani separatism and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, also known as the Kanishka bombing, killed 329 people, including 82 children, making it the deadliest terror attack in North America before 9/11. “It was coordinated across continents by the Khalistanis,” said Sanjay Lazar, who lost his entire family in the bombing and was orphaned as a teenager.
In an emotional speech, Lazar described the trauma of traveling alone at 17 to Cork, Ireland, to identify bodies at the hospital. “It’s something I wish on nobody,” he said. “No 17-year-old, no 70-year-old, to wake up every morning and wait for the ships that would come in with the naval and then the bodies to arrive.”
Canadian journalist Terry Milweski’s remarks, shared during the event, focused on the Khalistan movement’s dependence on Pakistan’s ISI. “Without Pakistan to provide a safe haven, medical care, training, a place to hide, the Khalistan movement would never have been able to launch the armed insurgency,” he said. Milweski described how the Air India bomber, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was killed in Punjab in 1992 while traveling with heavily armed ISI agents. “They had a rocket launcher in the car, as well as a machine gun. And Pakistan confirmed their identities, by the way,” he noted.
Speakers also discussed the “K2 Strategy” — the alliance between Khalistani militants and Kashmiri separatists. “This is a case in point in the story of Parmar, the Air India bomber,” Milweski said, citing how Pakistan’s efforts to “bleed India” go back to the 1971 Bangladeshi Liberation war. “Pakistan was determined to get its revenge by seizing off, breaking off a piece of India, just as India had broken off East Pakistan and turned it into Bangladesh.”
Lazar also highlighted the broader implications of this extremist violence, calling it “not an Indian problem. This is a global problem. This problem is in Canada, in the United States, in Europe, in the UK.” He emphasized that Khalistani terrorism is intertwined with Islamist terrorism, warning, “They are like co-joined twins. And that’s why I want to impress upon whether it’s the diaspora here, whether it’s organizations in the US or Canada, or whether it’s the government as well to look into this because this is something that impacts all of us.”
In a final call to action, Lazar stated, “I would hate to see another Sanjay waiting by the site of a terrorist attack at any stage. I don’t want to see any kid or anybody else go through that.”
This event served as a powerful reminder of the continuing threat posed by extremist networks and the ongoing struggle for justice by families of the victims.
