New Delhi:
The Foreign Office denied a report in British daily The Guardian accusing India of carrying out targeted killings in Pakistan to eliminate terrorists. The ministry called it “false and malicious anti-India propaganda” and quoted External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar as saying that targeted killings in other countries “are not the policy of the Indian government.”
The ministry's denials were echoed in a report in the Guardian, which claimed that Delhi had “implemented policies targeting people it deemed hostile to India”.
The report claims that up to 20 similar assassinations have been carried out by the Indian intelligence agency RAW since the 2019 Pulwama attack, citing evidence provided by Pakistan and interviews with intelligence officials on both sides of the border. states that it is based on
The Guardian newspaper cited unnamed Indian officials as saying that India has been involved in extrajudicial killings abroad and that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, which was implicated in the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, and Russia's It was reported that he took inspiration from the KGB. .
The report said Pakistani authorities had produced documentation of some of the killings but could not independently verify it. The newspaper said Pakistani officials also claimed that the killing was orchestrated by an Indian intelligence sleeper cell set up in the UAE.
Earlier, the United States and Canada had accused India of involvement in assassination and other attempts abroad.
Last September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed there was a “credible suspicion” of Indian involvement in the murder of Khalidani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijal, a Canadian national and a wanted terrorist in India, was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey in June. India had rejected this claim as “irrational”.
The US then claimed to have thwarted an attempt to kill another Khalistani separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Panun.
The United States claimed that Panun, an American-Canadian, was the subject of an assassination plot orchestrated by Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, and unnamed Indian government officials.
India said it was investigating U.S. views on “linkages between organized criminals, gun traffickers, terrorists and others” following the U.S. allegations.
Former Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagki said, “India takes such inputs seriously because it also affects our own national security interests. Related issues are already being considered by relevant ministries.”
