World's deadliest terror attack on a single aircraft

On this day…..26 years ago, the deadliest act of terrorism involving a single aircraft happened thousands of feet above the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.     An Air India jumbo jet en route from Montreal to Heathrow was blown up, killing all 329 people on board.

The previous year, the Sikhs’ holiest shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, had been stormed by Indian troops, and the police investigation in Canada centred on Sikh extremists.   One, alleged to be the mastermind, was killed in a gun battle with Indian police in 1992.

It was not until 2000 that the first suspects were charged.    Inderjit Singh Reyat was sentenced to five years in prison, but two others were acquitted.    There were claims that some witnesses were intimidated, and that another was murdered before he could give evidence.

An official investigation published in 2010 was highly critical of the government, the police and the intelligence services, while in January of this year, Reyat was gaoled for nine years for perjuring himself to protect the two men who were acquitted.     For more, see A Disastrous History of the World.

Labour anniversary + Indian massacre

It is 43 days since Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman announced on television that disgraced bank boss Sir Fred Goodwin would not be allowed to keep his £700,000 a year pension. The payment was “not going to happen.” The hapless Gordon Brown, she told us, had “said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted.”

So what has Labour done in the six weeks that have elapsed since to keep their promise to the British people? Er, can’t think of anything offhand. Maybe they’ve just been too busy making up lies to try to smear opposition politicians.

On this day.....90 years ago, British soldiers opened fire on unarmed Indian demonstrators in the Jallianwala garden in Amritsar. The shooting went on for ten minutes, and at the end of it, according to official figures, 379 men, women and children lay dead, though some estimates put the real total at more than 1,000.

The officer in command, Brigadier-General Reginald Dwyer, was officially censured and resigned from the army, though the House of Lords passed a motion praising his conduct, and an appeal run by a British newspaper for him raised £30,000.