In a recent report by The Guardian, India has been accused of carrying out at least 20 extrajudicial killings in Pakistan since 2020 as part of a broader policy to target terrorists living on foreign soil. India has not officially responded to the allegations, but on Friday, the country’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, stated that India would kill anyone who disturbed peace in the country and escaped to Pakistan. Pakistan has reacted sharply, calling the remarks provocative. The two countries have a tense relationship and have fought three wars since they became independent nations in 1947.
The report has come at a time when India is weeks away from general elections, and Pakistan is an emotive issue in India. Analysts say that politicians, especially from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), often use it as a nationalistic poll plank to curry favour with voters. The Guardian report quoted “senior officials from two separate Pakistani intelligence agencies” who claimed India’s spy agency, the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), was directly involved in the assassinations. The unnamed officials claimed that India’s targeted assassinations in Pakistan and the West had increased significantly since 2023, and Delhi had drawn inspiration from other foreign spy agencies, which have been linked to extrajudicial killings on foreign soil.
The report goes on to cite two unnamed Indian officials as saying that India decided to target dissidents abroad after the Pulwama attack in 2019. India did not immediately respond to the newspaper’s allegations, although the report quotes the foreign ministry citing a previous denial made by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar that targeted killings in other countries were “not the government of India’s policy.”
On Friday, India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that “any terrorist trying to create turmoil in India won’t be spared”. Pakistan’s foreign office put out a statement calling Mr Singh’s remarks provocative. Islamabad claimed it had provided “irrefutable evidence” linking India to extrajudicial killings in its country and called on the international community to “hold India accountable for its illegal actions.” It also added that “India’s assertion of its preparedness to extrajudicially execute more civilians extrajudicially, arbitrarily pronounced as ‘terrorists,’ inside Pakistan constitutes a clear admission of culpability.”
The allegations come months after Canada also accused India of carrying out extrajudicial killings in the country, a charge Delhi denies. In November, the US too had said that it had foiled an alleged plot by an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. India denied any involvement but said it was “cooperating” with US authorities on the issue.
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