In an interview with News18, the defence minister said, “If any terrorist will try to disturb India from Pakistan, we will give muh tod jawab. If needed, Pakistan mein ghus ke marenge.”
Moreover, he said, “Whatever Prime Minister has said is absolutely true. And this is the strength of India. And Pakistan has also started understanding this. By the way, India always wants to maintain good relations with its neighbouring countries. Whatever it is, it is our neighbouring country. And today you must have seen, look at the history. Till date, we have neither attacked any land in the world nor have we taken any initiative to attack any land in the world. This has been the nature of India. But if anyone shows India the angry eyes again and again, comes to India and tries to promote terrorist activities, we will not spare them.”
These killings as reported by news daily The Guardian citing Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives “were reportedly part of India’s plan to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.”
The Guardian claims it has seen documents related to these 20 killings but was unable to independently verify them.
ET Online has not verified these reports independently.The Ministry of External Affairs has denied all these allegations, terming them ‘false and malicious anti-India propaganda’.The Indian government officials have consistently denied involvement in any of these killings, with MEA’s S Jaishankar claiming that targeted killings in other countries were not the Indian government’s policy.
The Pakistani government too has been reluctant to reveal all data publicly, given that the killings are those of known terrorists and individuals linked to outlawed militant groups that Pakistan has denied sheltering.
The report claims that India’s Research & Analysis wing was behind almost 20 killings since 2020. Among those targeted were Khalistani separatists operating from abroad. RAW allegedly paid sleeper cells operating out of the United Arab Emirates.
However, these killings have largely stopped ever since Canada and USA openly accused Indian government’s involvement in the killing of Khalistani separatists on their soil.
India reportedly stepped up these measures following the Pulwama attack that happened before the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
“After Pulwama, the approach changed to target the elements outside the country before they are able to launch an attack or create any disturbance,” Guardian quoted an Indian intelligence operative as saying. “We could not stop the attacks because ultimately their safe havens were in Pakistan, so we had to get to the source.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told their Parliament that Indian government was involved in the assassination of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar while Washington said India was behind the foiled assassination attempt of another Khalistani separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
