"I feel there is no vengeance in this case. The pain is always going to be there. After 15 years, it just all comes back to you," said Vasant Saklikar, whose sister-in-law died in the crash.
Police said relatives of the victims had mixed emotions at the news of the arrests in Vancouver.
"A lot, in very many ways, have moved on with their lives," a police spokeswoman said, quoted in the National Post.
"They are very relieved, but of course this has opened up a lot of things they have tried to put behind them, so it's a very difficult time for them."
"Not all Sikhs to blame"
The Vancouver Sun interviewed leaders of the strong local Sikh community, who said they felt the arrests cleared the community as a whole.
The president of a local temple, Balwant Singh Gill, agreed.
"People have been waiting impatiently for years. This is a happy, happy day for the Sikh community. It is a joyful moment. Now there will be peace in the community," he said.
Painful for the families
But other relatives said the news came as a painful reminder.
"I feel there is no vengeance in this case. The pain is always going to be there. After 15 years, it just all comes back to you," said Vasant Saklikar, whose sister-in-law died in the crash.
Bal Gupta, an engineer from Ontario, lost his wife in the bombing.
"It is like somebody putting a needle in a wound that has formed a crust," he said of the arrests. "Now it is bleeding on the outside."
British Columbia's Premier, Ujjal Dosanjh, is Canada's first premier of Indian extraction.
"The people of British Columbia and the people of Canada will heave a sigh of relief," he told The Times of India.
British Columbia's The Province newspaper said the arrests had come now because police feared a fresh attack.
"The two men were considered a flight risk. In fact, police made a decision to move early Friday morning when it became apparent that one was about to board a flight for Pakistan," the newspaper said.
BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.