“Malicious and fraudulent misinformation”: India refutes claims of premeditated murders in Pakistan
New Delhi: In an effort to get rid of terrorists who are residing abroad, the Ministry of External Affairs has harshly criticised and denied claims that it has killed people in Pakistan. This was in response to a revelation published in the Guardian by Indian and Pakistani intelligence officers claiming that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence agency, had given orders to murder terrorists in Pakistan.
Targeted assassinations in other countries are “not the government of India’s policy,” as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar previously denied. The MEA condemned the claims by restating an earlier statement that they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda” and highlighting it.
According to the article, which quotes papers provided by Pakistani investigators and speaks with intelligence officials in both India and Pakistan, 20 such targeted killings by unidentified shooters in Pakistan have occurred since 2020. This occurs concurrently with the US and Canada accusing India of being involved in the failed attempt to kill India-designated Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York and the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year.
The article said that “Delhi has implemented a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India” and noted India’s rejection of the accusations. According to Indian intelligence sources, the Pulwama assault in 2019, in which 40 Indian paramilitary members were murdered in a suicide bombing for which the Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility, was the catalyst for RAW’s move to concentrating on terrorists residing abroad.
One Indian intelligence officer said, “After Pulwama, the approach changed to target the elements outside the country before they can launch an attack or create any disturbance.” “We had to reach the source because we were unable to halt the attacks because their safe havens were ultimately located in Pakistan.”
Pakistan kills terrorists
This information is released concurrently with the unexplained deaths of other Pakistani terrorists who were on India’s most wanted list. On March 2, Sheikh Jameel-ur-Rehman, a well-known member of the United Jihad Council (UJC), was discovered dead in Pakistan under “mysterious circumstances.”
Previous to that, on December 17, 2023, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an unidentified gunman opened fire on Habibullah, a terrorist connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Last year, the External Affairs Ministry said that India wanted terrorists to go to the country and face the justice system.
According to the Guardian study, 20 deaths in Pakistan from unidentified assailants have been recorded since 2020; however, two of the deaths have been attributed to local terrorist organisations. Nevertheless, Ajay Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in Delhi, said that Pakistan has not only declined to officially look into the incidents but also to accept that these people are residents of their territory, which raises doubts about the validity of their murders.
For many years, India has accused Pakistan of providing terrorists with a safe haven and waging a bloody terrorist insurgency in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Early in the new millennium, Pakistan-based terrorist organisations carried out a slew of terror strikes on India, including the 2008 Mumbai bombings that claimed 172 lives and the 2006 Mumbai train explosions that claimed over 160 lives.
