'Indian Government organised killings in Pakistan to eliminate terrorists', says Guardian report citing intel sources

Indian and Pakistani intelligence officials have been anonymously quoted in a report by The Guardian saying Indian government has been involved in targeted killings in Pakistan as part of a broader strategy to eliminate terrorists residing on foreign soil.

Interviews with officials from both countries and documents shared by Pakistani investigators shed light on the alleged actions of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW). It is claimed that RAW, directly controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, embarked on these extrajudicial killings as a heightened national security measure after 2019.

Although the allegations primarily pertain to individuals facing serious terror charges, India has also faced public accusations from Washington and Ottawa regarding the deaths of dissidents, including a Sikh activist in Canada, and a failed assassination attempt on another Sikh in the US last year.

The report claims that nearly 20 killings since 2020 in Pakistan were executed by unidentified gunmen, allegedly with the involvement of Indian intelligence. These operations purportedly targeted Sikh separatists associated with the Khalistan movement, both within Pakistan and abroad.

According to Pakistani investigators, Indian intelligence sleeper cells, predominantly operating from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), orchestrated these killings.

Indian intelligence officers claim that the shift towards targeting dissidents abroad was triggered by the 2019 Pulwama attack, where a suicide bomber targeted a military convoy in Indian-administered Kashmir. This attack, claimed by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, resulted in the deaths of 40 paramilitary personnel.

In response to inquiries, India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied all allegations, reiterating previous statements disavowing involvement in targeted killings abroad.

The evidence, reportedly seen by the Guardian news desk, suggests that these killings were coordinated from the UAE, where RAW established sleeper cells to oversee various aspects of the operations and recruit perpetrators. Payments for these executions were purportedly channeled through Dubai, with coordination meetings also alleged to have taken place in other countries.

Analysts feel Pakistan has been reluctant to publicly acknowledge the killings as most of the targets are known terrorists and associates of banned militant groups that Islamabad has long denied sheltering, the report says.