Narendra Modi visits Air India Memorial in Toronto

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the memorial here for the victims of Air India Flight 182 that was bombed in 1985.

Modi was accompanied by his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper during the visit.

“PM @narendramodi and @pmharper at the Air India memorial,” Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, tweeted.

Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747 named “Kanishka”, flying on the Montreal-London-New Delhi route on June 23, 1985, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after being bombed while in Irish airspace.

All 329 passengers and crew on board were killed in the tragedy. Of them, 268 were Canadian citizens, mostly of Indian descent. There were 24 Indian and 27 Britons as well.

Modi, along with Harper, interacted with the relatives of the victims who had gathered at the memorial.

Earlier on Thursday, Modi met leading Canadian CEOs here after meeting Canadian bankers and pension fund managers as part of his push for attracting investments to India.

Canada is the last leg of Modi’s three-nation tour, during which he has pushed the ambitious “Make in India” initiative and signed several agreements, including a deal on the supply of uranium to power India’s civilian nuclear programme.

Modi arrived in Toronto from Ottawa on Wednesday and addressed a 10,000-strong crowd of Indo-Canadians.

Later Thursday, he will later travel to Vancouver, from where he will fly back to India. (IANS)