Sikh-Canadian national Inderjit Singh Reyat, the only person convicted in the 1985 Air India bombings that killed 331 people, was released from a Canadian prison on Jan. 27 after being behind bars for over two decades.
On June 23, 1982, Air India flight 182, enroute from Toronto to Mumbai via Montreal, London and Delhi, exploded mid-air in what is considered to be one of the deadliest attacks in airline history. Reyat was convicted for making the bombs that were placed in suitcases that were checked in at Montreal, without any accompanying passenger boarding the flight.
The first bomb exploded on Air India flight 182 as it neared the coast of Ireland, resulting in the death of all 329 people onboard. The second went off at Japan's Narita airport, killing two baggage handlers who were transferring the cargo. Among the victims were 268 Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian origin, and 24 Indians.
Subsequent investigations attributed the bombings to Sikh extremists. The attack was in response to the Indian government's storming of the Sikh shrine Golden Temple to tackle militants demanding a separate homeland in 1984. A 2010 report by a Canadian inquiry commission concluded that the attack was the result of a "series of errors", especially a lack of communication between Canadian intelligence and security agencies.
Reyat initially served 15 years in prison for making the bombs. In 2010, he was also convicted of lying while testifying to the mass murder trial of co-accused Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, who were later acquitted because of lack of evidence. At the time of his release, he had served two-thirds of a nine-year sentence for perjury. Reyat has been asked to live in a halfway house until the completion of his perjury sentence in August 2018.