Every year on June 23, at 8 a.m. sharp, a village in Ireland pays homage to those who died in a blast on board Air India’s Boeing 747 Kanishka in 1985. This year too, a solemn ceremony is being organised at a memorial in Ahakista to mark the 30th year of the tragedy in which 329 people were killed.
Among those who lost their lives were 268 Canadians, 27 British and 24 Indians; a majority of the Canadian citizens were of Indian descent.
Representing India at the special memorial service will be Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd.) V.K. Singh, and a delegation of Air India and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
The memorial service for those who died on the Montréal-London-New Delhi flight has been organised by the Irish authorities over the years. Memorial services are also held in Canada.
An official of the Ireland government told The Hindu that every year since the terror attack in 1985, the Irish government has sent a representative to attend the service.
India, which is yet to have a memorial of its own, despite several requests from the families of the victims, has not failed to acknowledge the Irish gesture. “…Those visiting the memorial do not fail to acknowledge the commendable job done by the Cork County Council in maintaining and developing the memorial site over the years,” an Indian official said.
At the memorial site in Ahakista, the names of all the persons who lost their lives are inscribed on a wall opposite the Sundial Memorial. “A memorial stone was erected on the coast in Ahakista village, where many of the bodies were brought ashore. The monument was inaugurated on June 23, 1986, the first anniversary of the disaster, in the presence of former Foreign Minister P. Shivshankar,” the Indian official said.
The 20th anniversary ceremony in 2005 was attended by the then Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chauhan, while the 25th anniversary in 2010, was attended by Salman Khurshid, the then Minister of State for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs.
Lata Pada, who lost her husband and two daughters in the crash speaking to The Hindu from Canada said the families of the victims had raised the issue of a memorial in India with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and recently with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their visits to Canada. “…They have a beautiful memorial in Ireland, near the site of the crash, and it is visceral to go through each of those names and revisit the magnitude of loss. That memorial is a place for the families to meet and share their pain," she said.
