• Source:JND
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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has dismissed allegations in a report by UK-based newspaper The Guardian, that accused India of orchestrating killings of individuals in Pakistan as part of a bid to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil. The External Affairs Ministry rejected the allegations and said they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda.” The report also quoted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who earlier said that targeting killings in other countries was not the ‘government of India’s policy’. 

The UK-based newspaper in its report mentioned that the Indian intelligence agency RAW has carried out up to 20 such assassinations since the Pulwama assault in 2019. The report also mentioned that it is based on evidence provided by Pakistan and interviews with intelligence officers on both sides of the border.

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The report quoted intelligence officers and claimed that New Delhi had drawn inspiration from the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and Russia's KGB, both of which have been linked to extrajudicial assassinations on foreign soil, as well as the 2018 murder of Saudi writer and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

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According to the report, Pakistani authorities have produced documents related to some of the killings, that could not be independently verified. 

Earlier, the United States (US) and Canada had accused India of orchestrating such assassination attempts on foreign soil. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stoked controversy in September last year after he alleged the potential involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia in June. However, India has strongly rejected these allegations, calling them ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’. 

India has strongly rejected Trudeau's allegations, calling them ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’. (Reuters Image)

Later the US claimed that they had foiled an attempt to kill another Khalistani separatist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The US alleged that Pannun, an American-Canadian citizen, was the target of a murder plot planned by Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national, and an unnamed Indian government official. Last year, India also formed a committee to probe the allegations of the foiled assassination plot.