IT CAN'T END HERE.

AIR-India Flight 182 Bombing Incident, 1985; AIRCRAFT accidents; TRAGEDY (Drama); CRIMINAL procedure; COURTS; TERRORISTS; INSURGENCY; CANADIANS; MURDER; BOMBINGS

This article focuses on the verdict in the case of Air-India Flight 182, which crashed off the coast of Ireland after suitcase bombs were exploded on the plane in 1985. "In the early morning hours of June 23, 1985, two bomb-laden suitcases detonated half a world apart," began B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Bruce Josephson, reading a verdict that set two men free and left hundreds more shackled to a 20-year-old tragedy that now seems beyond hope of resolution. At the end of an hour-long summation of his judgment -- delivered in a surreal, blast-resistant room from behind bulletproof windows -- the packed Vancouver courtroom was awash in conflicting emotions of relief and despair. Then, with the collapse of the prosecution complete, came angry calls for a public inquiry to deliver, if not justice, at least accountability for what many touched by the tragedy consider a botched investigation into a preventable act of terrorism. Just one row of seats separated families of the 331 people killed in those two explosions from relatives and supporters of the two men prosecutors had labelled mass murderers: Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, a Kamloops millworker and fiery orator, and Ripudaman Singh Malik, 58, an unbending Sikh fundamentalist, whose wealth and influence touches the educational, spiritual and business affairs of thousands of Sikhs throughout B.C.'s Lower Mainland. The verdict -- reached after a two-decade, $100-million RCMP investigation and almost 350 days of court time -- freed Bagri and Malik after more than four years in jail. It resolved little else. The Crown is considering an appeal. The RCMP has vowed the investigation will continue. But nothing stemming from last week's ruling seems likely to generate fresh leads or inspire new witnesses to come forward. Few of the victims' families hold much hope for an appeal or new arrests.