Timeline: Air India bombing

1978 to May 1984: A few Sikh leaders in India and abroad start talking about separatism. They are led in England by Dr. Jagjit Singh Chouhan and in Punjab by the charismatic Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.

1978: In Vancouver, suspected Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar starts the militant separatist group Babbar Khalsa.

June 29, 1983: Parmar is arrested in Germany on an Interpol warrant saying he is wanted for three murders in India in 1981. He is assisted by two friends in Canada, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Surjan Singh Gill, and in July 1984, he wins his release.

June 5, 1984: Indian government troops storm Amritsar’s Golden Temple, galvanizing Sikh extremists who favour armed struggle to get a Sikh nation called Khalistan carved from Punjab. The attack on the holy shrine ignites anger and spurs violence in B.C.’s Sikh community.

July 1984: Parmar, fresh from a German jail cell, addresses supporters at a Calgary Sikh temple, saying Air India planes will fall from the sky in retaliation for the Golden Temple attack.

June 4, 1985: Agents of the fledgling Canadian Security Intelligence Service follow Parmar to the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, B.C. Accompanied by Inderjit Singh Reyat and another unidentified man dubbed Mr. X, the trio sets off explosives in the woods. Police say they were testing materials for the Air India bomb.

June 23, 1985: A bomb explodes at Japan’s Narita airport in a Vancouver suitcase tagged for an Air India flight. Two baggage handlers are killed and four others wounded. Less than an hour later, Air India Flight 182 blows up off the coast of Ireland, killing all aboard.

Nov. 8, 1985: Parmar and Reyat are arrested in connection with the Air India bombing. Charges against Parmar are dropped and Reyat is fined for a minor explosives charge.

May 9, 1991: Reyat is convicted of fabricating the explosive device that killed two baggage handlers at Narita Airport. He is sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter.

Oct. 27, 2000: Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the bombings of Air India Flight 182 and at Narita Airport.

June 6, 2001: Reyat is charged in Air India Flight 182 bombing just days before his 10-year sentence for his role in the Narita bombing is due to expire.

Feb. 10, 2003: Reyat pleads guilty to manslaughter and is sentenced to five years in jail.

April 28, 2003: The trial of Malik and Bagri begins in B.C. Supreme Court before Justice Ian Bruce Josephson in a packed, high-security courtroom. Dozens of reporters from around the world are joined by victims’ relatives, community leaders, family members of the accused men and RCMP members who worked on the case over the years.

Dec. 3, 2004: After 19 months and 232 court days, the Crown and defence rest in Canada’s longest and most complex criminal trial.

March 16, 2005: Bagri and Malik are found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of 331 people in two terrorist bombings that targeted Air India.

May 2006: Retired Supreme Court of Canada justice John Major is appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to head a judicial inquiry into the Air India bombing and subsequent police investigation.

September 2006: The Air India Commission of Inquiry begins hearing witnesses, including family members of the 329 people who died on board the flight.

May 2007: Some of the most startling evidence about systemic intelligence failures is heard at the Ottawa inquiry.

February 2008: The public portion of the inquiry ends.

July 2009: Major announces a five-volume report is complete, but can’t be released until it is translated.

June 17, 2010: The report is released in Ottawa. The federal government promises an apology and compensation for the families of victims.

June 23, 2010: Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivers an emotional apology for the raft of government failings that helped lead to the Air India bombing, calling the attack "an act of grotesque violence" that should have been prevented.

September 9, 2010: The high-profile perjury trial of Inderjit Singh Reyat is begins in B.C. Supreme Court. He was charged in February 2006 with allegedly lying more than a dozen times during his testimony at the trial of Bagri and Malik.