Vancouver: Testifying in the Air India bombing case trial, the translator of a speech, that called for the murder of 50,000 Hindus and incited a crowd, today (July 7, 2004) said he was not sure whether the speech was for or against Hindus.

Defence witness Gian Singh Kotli had transcribed an impassioned speech given by Ajaib Singh Bagri the man accused of Air India bombing at a gathering of Sikhs in Madison Square Gardens in 1984.

Crown prosecutor Richard Cairns asked him if he agreed the address "teems with rage and is filled with violent images of mass murder, rape, beheadings, executions and the death of children, the 'Toronto Star' reported. "Yes," Kotli replied, but added that the words still left him "perplexed".

"Because, he's also expressing his great love for the Hindus, his great respect for the Hindus," he said. Still, Kotli admitted that Bagri called for revenge against Hindus a number of times in his speech. At one point Bagri told the crowd that Sikhs who called Hindus their "brothers" were traitors.

Then he said the children and families of "traitors" should be "crushed by crushers and reduced to a pulp". But, Kotli said, overall the speech focused more on retribution against the Indian Government and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was murdered a few months later.

Sikhs worldwide were outraged when the Indian Army raided the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine, in June 1984. Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are on trial for June 23, 1985, bombings that targeted Air India and killed 331 people, mostly Canadians.