"An issue of concern": Pakistan repeats claims of Indian agents behind targeted killings of terrorists
03 May 2024 09:44:54
Singing the same tunes, Pakistan has once again repeated the accusation of Indian agents being behind the targeted killing of terrorists within and beyond Pakistan's borders. The remarks, which were met with staunch condemnation from India, have further strained the already tense relations between the two neighbours.
Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a weekly briefing, "India's network of espionage, subversion and extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings has been very active in South Asia over the last decades, has expanded to several continents. It's now an issue of concern for the international community."
She further added, "Pakistan has presented concrete evidence of involvement of Indian agents in terror attacks inside Pakistan and extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani territory. These acts are illegal. These are in violation of international law of UN Charter and the basic precepts of justice and due process."
"We therefore urge the international community to hold India to account for its illegal acts and for the actions it's taking in foreign countries in violation of international law," Baloch added.
The controversial report of The Guardian
It should be noted that Indian officials dismissed The Guardian's report claiming New Delhi orchestrated killings of individuals in Pakistan as part of a bid to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil. “This policy of Indian agents organising killings in Pakistan hasn’t been developed overnight. We believe they have worked for around two years to establish these sleeper cells in the UAE who are mostly organising the executions. After that, we began witnessing many killings,” a Pakistani official was quoted by the publication.
The report implied that India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) established a sleeper cell in the UAE to coordinate and execute the assassinations. Allegedly, Indian officials provided substantial sums of money to financially struggling Pakistanis, and in some cases, persuaded jihadists to carry out the killings, exploiting their belief that they were targeting "infidels."
Analysts speculate that Pakistan has been hesitant to openly acknowledge these killings because many of the victims are recognized terrorists and affiliates of banned militant organizations, which Islamabad has persistently denied harbouring.