Date:04/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/05/04/stories/2007050404651200.htm

National

Kanishka: Rajiv questioned security lapses

Toronto: In a phone call just after the bombing of the Air India plane in 1985, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi asked his Canadian counterpart why all the baggage on the flight was not removed and re-checked in Montreal when three pieces were found to be suspicious.

Mr. Gandhi had suggested to the then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that the country had breached international procedures by not re-screening all the luggage on Flight 182.

Details of the emotionally-charged exchange were revealed on Wednesday in declassified government documents released at the judicial inquiry probing into the June 23, 1985, bombing. — PTI