A chief engineer for the

Vancouver School Board The Vancouver School Board (VSB; officially School District 39 Vancouver) is a school district based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A board of nine trustees normally manages this district that serves the city of Vancouver and the Uni ...

, Hardial Singh Johal was an avid follower of

Talwinder Singh Parmar Talwinder Singh Parmar (26 February 1944 – 15 October 1992) born in Kapurthala, Punjab, India was a sikh kharku. He was also the founder, leader, and Jathedar of Babbar Khalsa International, better known as Babbar Khalsa, a militant Sikh gro ...

, and thus closely eyed in the investigation following the bombing of

Air India Flight 182 Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, it was operated using Boeing 747-237B registered ''VT-EFO''. It disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to Lond ...

. He was alleged to have stored the suitcase explosives in the basement of a Vancouver school, and to have purchased the tickets for the flights on which the bombs were placed. Moments after a

wiretap Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

ped phonecall with Parmar on June 20, 1985, a man phoned

Canadian Pacific Airlines Canadian Pacific Air Lines was a Canadian airline that operated from 1942 to 1987. It operated under the name CP Air from 1968 to 1986. Headquartered at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, British Columbia, it served domestic Canadian ...

where he spoke to ticket agent Martine Donahue, and purchased two tickets - one for a "Mohinderbel Singh" for

Air India Flight 301 The 1985 Narita International Airport bombing was the attempted bombing of Air India Flight 301 by Canadian Sikh terrorists which took place on June 23, 1985, and was part of a transnational aviation bomb plot which also targeted Air India Flight 1 ...

to Tokyo, and another under the name of "Jaswand Singh" for CP Air Flight 086, which was connecting to the Air India flight. The contact phone number left with the ticket agent became one of the first leads tracked by investigators, and was owned by Johal.

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

Air India: Evidence from the trial
/ref> The initial phone conversation, as translated, included the following exchange; ::Parmar: Did he write the story? ::Johal: No he didn't. ::Parmar: Do that work first. It is believed that "writing the story" referred to purchasing the tickets for the flight, and after the tickets were purchased, Johal phoned Parmar back and asked if he could "come over and read the story he asked for", to which Parmar agreed. In the documentary '' Air India 182'' Mandip Singh Grewal, the son of Air India 182 victim Dajlit Singh Grewal,Air India 182 Press Kit

Archive
. '' Air India 182'' (film) official website. p. 10/12. Retrieved on March 10, 2015. stated that he and his family met Johal at

Vancouver International Airport Vancouver International Airport is an international airport located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, serving the city of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland region. It is located from Downtown Vancouver. It is the second busie ...

on the day that his father departed for the flight connecting to Air India 182.Smith, Charlie.
Terror of Air India Flight 182 comes to small screen

Archive
. ''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

''. June 18, 2008. Retrieved on October 29, 2014. Johal's house was raided by the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

(RCMP) on November 6, 1985 along with the residences of

Inderjit Singh Reyat Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi–Bombay route. On 23 June 1985, it was operated using Boeing 747-237B registered ''VT-EFO''. It disintegrated in mid-air en route from Montreal to Lond ...

, Surjan Singh Gill and Manmohan Singh. On November 15, 2002, Johal died of natural causes at the age of 55.

References

Air India Flight 182 Canadian people of Indian descent 2002 deaths Year of birth missing {{Canada-crime-bio-stub Sikh terrorism