Vancouver: Inderjit Singh Reyat, a key witness in Air India's Kanishka bombing case, admitted before the trial court in Vancouver that he was asked by a Sikh militant to make bombs and that he knew the two main accused facing charges of conspiracy and murder in the case.

Reyat has already been convicted and has served a 10-year jail term in connection with Narita airport bombing, which occurred on the same day as the Kanishka aircraft exploded over the Atlantic, killing all 329 people on board. Two baggage handlers were killed at the airport.

A former auto mechanic from Duncan, Reyat, who is the first among the accused to take the stand in 18 years, on September 10 recalled the events before the bombings for the court.

Testifying under the protection of the Canada Evidence Act, (which means he cannot face new charges based on his testimony), Reyat remembered with a selective memory that he was approached by leader of Babbar Khalsa group Talwinder Singh Parmar in early 1985 about making an explosive device to be used in India.

"He (Parmar) wanted to use the device in India," Reyat testified before the British Columbia Court hearing the trial, but said he could not recall why he wanted the device, what the target was or when it would go off.

PTI