Indian govt 'involved' in killings on Pakistan's soil, UK publication backs Islamabad's claim

• New Delhi government “assassinated individuals in Pakistan”.
• Raw "carried out assassinations" abroad following Pulwama attack.
• Rise in killings in Pakistan credited to Indian sleeper-cells: report.

Lending further credence to Islamabad’s claims, The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, report revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Indian government  “ordered killings” on Pakistan’s soil.

Exposing the “sophisticated and sinister” Indian campaign of extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Syrus Qazi, in January this year, said that Islamabad had "credible evidence" of Indian agents' link to the killings of two of its citizens on its soil.

The statement came months after both Canada and the United States separately accused Indian agents of being linked to assassination attempts on their soil. "These are killings-for-hire cases involving a sophisticated international set-up spread over multiple jurisdictions," the foreign secretary had told reporters during a press conference in Islamabad.

In the fresh report, the UK daily newspaper claimed that the New Delhi government “assassinated individuals in Pakistan”.

Quoting intelligence operatives, the publication said that New Delhi has adopted a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India on foreign soil.

India’s notorious spy agency the Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), who is directly controlled by the office of PM Modi, allegedly began to carry out assassinations abroad following the 2019 Pulwama attack.

In the attack, at least 44 Indian paramilitary soldiers were killed in Pulwama district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). 

As per the reports, Indian agents were behind the killings of 20 individuals on Pakistan’s soil since 2020. The allegations also suggest that Sikh separatists in the Khalistan movement were targeted as part of these Indian foreign operations.

The rise in killings in Pakistan in 2023 was credited to the Indian intelligence sleeper-cells, as per the report.

“These deaths were orchestrated by Indian intelligence sleeper-cells,” the publication quoted the Pakistani officials as saying.

Indian agents also allegedly recruited “miscreants” to carry out the shootings, making them believe they were killing “infidels”, read the report.

One Indian intelligence operative said: “After Pulwama, the approach changed to target the elements outside the country before they are able to launch an attack or create any disturbance.”

India had drawn inspiration from intelligence agencies of Israel’s Mossad and Russia’s KGB, which have been linked to extrajudicial killings on foreign soil, Indian intelligence operative was quoted as saying.

Senior officials from two Pakistani intelligence agencies said they suspected New Delhi’s involvement in up to 20 killings since 2020 on their soil.

Targeted killings increased significantly last year, the intelligence sources said and accused India of the killings of 15 people, most of whom were gunned down at a close range.

India’s ministry of external affairs, however, denied all the allegations and reiterated that they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.