Air India bomber released: A sad lesson from the past

The past can reintroduce itself sometimes in the most unexpected ways.

One such occasion presented itself earlier his week when it was announced that Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person convicted over the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 329 people, had been released from prison and was, according to Canada’s parole service, “allowed to reintegrate into society after living in a halfway house following release a year ago”.

Some of the relatives of those murdered over 30 years ago do not need to be reintroduced to the past. They mark it still by visiting the memorial to the terrorist-attack dead at Ahakista each summer.