Anguished calls for justice from families of victims at Air India inquiry

Ottawa: Grief, anger, charges of racism, hints of dark conspiracy and anguished calls for justice were heard Monday as a long-awaited public inquiry got under way into the 1985 Air India bombing that took 329 lives.
Bal Gupta, the first witness to appear before former Supreme Court judge John Major, struggled to hold back tears as he recalled the death of his wife Ramwati in the attack - and his harrowing trip to Ireland to claim her body recovered from the wreckage in the North Atlantic.
He was not alone. Eighty per cent of the victims were Canadian citizens, most of Indian origin or descent. Some 29 families were wiped out entirely; another 32 were left with one parent; eight couples lost all their children aboard Air India Flight 182.
A key focus of the inquiry will be the mistakes made in the initial investigation of the bombing, which was hampered by inadvertent destruction of evidence and turf wars between the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
25/09/06 Jim Brown/Canadian Press/Canada.com, Canada

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline