Pakistan claims 'Indian agents' killed two of its citizens: What is the real story?

Pakistan has a habit of pointing fingers at India. This time, a top Pakistani official accused India of killing two Pakistani nationals on its soil, citing ‘a pattern’ of alleged Indian assassination plots abroad and raising tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. India has dismissed the accusations as ‘false and malicious anti-India propaganda.’ But what is the source of the new tension between the two countries? Here’s a closer look. Pakistan alleges Indian agents killed two citizens, India denies On Thursday, in a news conference, Pakistani foreign secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi claimed that Islamabad had “credible evidence” of links between Indian agents and the assassination of two Pakistani nationals alleged to be associated with banned terror groups, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in Sialkot and Rawalakot, an accusation similar to those made by the United States and Canada last year. “These were killings-for-hire cases involving a sophisticated international setup spread over multiple jurisdictions,” Qazi said, reports CNN. He accused two Indian agents of recruiting assassins to kill the men, both of whom were killed near mosques, but he did not provide any additional information about the victims or explain why New Delhi targeted them. He also compared the alleged killings in Pakistan to other reported Indian assassination plots in North America. “They fit the pattern of similar cases which have come to light in other countries including Canada and the United States,” said Qazi as reported by CNN. “Clearly the Indian network of extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings has become a global phenomenon.” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) dismissed Qazi’s allegations as Pakistan’s latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda. “As the world knows, Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime, and illegal transnational activities. India and many other countries have publicly warned Pakistan cautioning that it would be consumed by its own culture of terror and violence,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to comments by Pakistani foreign secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi. “To blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_13657492” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed Qazi’s allegations as Pakistan’s latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda. Image Courtesy: Screengrab/@airnewsalerts/X[/caption] ‘Indian agents supported criminals, terrorists’ Shahid Latif, a key aide of terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar and the mastermind of the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, was gunned down in a mosque in Sialkot in Punjab province on 11 October, 2023. On 8 September, 2023, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, affiliated with the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit, who was one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 1 January, 2023 was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside the Al-Qudus mosque during pre-dawn prayers in the Rawalakot area in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. “Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan. They recruited, financed, and supported criminals, terrorists, and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations,” Qazi said. The Foreign Secretary pointed towards Indian media and social media accounts that had immediately claimed and glorified these killings as “successful retribution against enemies of India” and projected their capacity to carry out “these illegal acts”. Qazi also alleged that the potential assassins were recruited using social media, talent spotters, and fake Daesh accounts. Referring to Shahid Latif’s assassination, Qazi said, “A detailed investigation revealed that an Indian agent, Yogesh Kumar, based in a third country, orchestrated the assassination.” Kumar recruited Muhammad Umair, a labourer in the third country, to act as a contact with local criminals in Pakistan to trace and assassinate Latif, however, “they were unable to carry out the execution,” he claimed. “After some of the failed attempts, Muhammad himself was personally sent to Pakistan to carry out the assassination,” the foreign secretary said, adding that Muhammad organised a team of five target killers and succeeded.

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All those involved in the killings were apprehended and a case was being tried in the court of law. “We have evidence of transactions made in the process linking the entire chain to Indian agent Yogesh Kumar,” Qazi claimed. “Another Indian agent was involved in the killing of a Pakistan man, identified as Muhammad Riaz,” he claimed, possibly referring to Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim. The killer, Muhammad Abdullah Ali, was arrested while boarding a flight at Karachi and the interrogation has revealed that he was “recruited and guided by Indian agents Ashok Kumar Anand and Yogesh Kumar,” Qazi claimed. Canada, US accuse Indian agents The statement by Pakistan on the killings, allegedly directed from a “third country” follow allegations by both Canada and the United States about the involvement of Indian agents in planning the assassinations of Khalistani separatists abroad. While India reacted sharply to Canada’s accusation that Indian agents were behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 in Surrey, India agreed to investigate US allegations. In an indictment, US officials said that an Indian national Nikhil Gupta, acting on directions from an Indian security official, was behind an attempt foiled by the FBI and authorities in New York to kill Khalistani separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. However, the government said that such contract killings were not “government policy”. With inputs from PTI