There was much bitterness between India and Canada after 1985 Kanishka bombing

The terrorists had planned twin attacks on two Air India flights on 23 June 1985.

- RAHUL CHHABRA

The diplomatic tension between New Delhi T and Ottawa over the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar has once again brought into focus the 1985 Air India plane's bombing that was allegedly plotted in Canada, an incident that had strained ties between the two countries just as Nijjar's killing has done now.

At least 329 people on board the plane-named Kanishka-had died and Canada had turned down India's request to hand over the key conspirator and Sikh militant Talwinder Singh Parmar, who headed the Babbar Khalsa terrorist organisation. He was later killed in 1992 in a gunfight with Punjab Police.

While in the Nijjar killing case, it is Canadian PM Justin Trudeau who has taken an anti-India stand by alleging New Delhi's role in the incident, it was his father Pierre Trudeau who had refused to act against separatists and turned down India's request to hand over Parmar.