Babar Khalsa

A sect of foreign Indians that believed in a separate Punjab state [http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/National/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V2&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070501%2fairindia_inquiry_070501&showbyline=True] that are believedWho|date=July 2007 to be responsible for the Air India Bombing of Flight 182. [http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/National/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V2&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070501%2fairindia_inquiry_070501&showbyline=True] While this has not been proven in court, their leader was killed in India after fleeing Canada. [http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/National/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-NATIONAL_V2&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20070501%2fairindia_inquiry_070501&showbyline=True] Two other accused men also believed to be tied to the sect were found not guilty by a Canadian court during the trial of Air India Flight 182

Banned Terrorist Status

Babar Khalsa, 18 years after the Air India Flight 182 bombing, was officially banned as a terrorist organization under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, under the Criminal Code. The following is the excerpts from the National Security website:

"Babbar Khalsa (BK) and Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) are entities of a Sikh terrorist organization whose aim is to establish a fundamentalist, independent Sikh state called Khalistan (Land of the Pure) in the area that is presently the Indian state of Punjab. BK and BKI continue to be one of the most vicious and powerful of the militant Sikh groups. Ideologically, members of BK and BKI follow in the path of its historical namesake Babbar Akalis, and thus vow to avenge the deaths of Sikhs killed in defense of the faith. Puritan in its conception of Sikhism, BK and BKI do not compromise on religious issues and thus spirituality is central to the groups' goal which is to establish a fundamentalist, independent Sikh state." [http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/ns/le/cle-en.asp]

The Organization was listed as a Terrorist organization operating in Canada on June 18, 2003 by the Canadian government and officially reviewed on November 9, 2006--where it was once again upheld to the status of a terrorist organization.