The Air India memorial service organized at a Sikh temple managed and controlled by Khalistan separatists this past Sunday surprised many people.

The management of the Dashmesh Durbar Sikh Temple in Surrey held special prayers for the 329 victims of the June 23, 1985, Air India bombing.

The bombing was blamed on the Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh extremist group seeking revenge for the political events of 1984.

The temple has traditionally organized memorial services for the victims of Operation Blue Star, an infamous military raid on the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs.

India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — who ordered the 1984 raid on the separatists — was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards, which lead to an anti-Sikh pogrom later that year that shook India to its democratic core.

Sunday marked the first time that the Surrey temple has organized a memorial service for the Air India bombing.

The temple management not only supports Khalistan, a separate Sikh homeland, but also glorifies militants involved in violence. Ironically, the temple management continues to glorify as a martyr the late Talwainder Singh Parmar, a Babbar Khalsa militant leader and an alleged mastermind of the Air India bombing conspiracy.

Parmar died in the custody of the Indian police in 1992 long before the Air India trial began. The trial resulted in the acquittal of a Vancouver millionaire, Ripudaman Singh Malik, as well as Ajaib Singh Bagri, another Babbar Khalsa leader. Inderjit Singh Reyat, the bomb maker, was convicted.

The temple management has been criticized for supporting violence. Indeed, the relatives of the bombing victims refused to attend Sunday’s memorial service describing it as hypocritical.

The temple president, Sudagar Singh Sandhu, defended the glorification of Parmar saying that he was never convicted for the bombing. Still, he could not explain why the temple did not organize such a memorial service earlier, saying only that "we also condemn innocent killings."

Both the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom and the Air India bombing were hate crimes, and they must be condemned by everyone without any political consideration.

However good may be the intentions of the Dashmesh Durbar Sikh temple, this gesture is too late and contradictory.

By the same yard stick, the ruling Congress party of India, which is now headed by a Sikh Prime Minister, cannot be exonerated as it has done nothing to punish the guilty in the 1984 pogrom, which was engineered by the Congress.

Those who really care for human lives should rather denounce terrorism and hate crimes completely instead of playing politics.