Pakistan accuses Indian agents of two assassinations on its soil

Pakistan has said it has credible evidence that Indian agents carried out two assassinations on Pakistani soil, and drawn comparisons to the killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. In a press briefing on Thursday, the foreign secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, said India was running a “sophisticated and sinister” campaign of “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” inside Pakistan. He said: “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.” India dismissed the allegations as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”. The accusations add fuel to claims that the Indian government has been carrying out targeted attacks against dissidents in foreign countries. Earlier this year the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence agents to the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh activist who was killed in Canada in June. India denied the accusations as “absurd”. The US made similar accusations against India, accusing Indian agents of directing an attempted assassination plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based lawyer and prominent Sikh activist, which was foiled by US agents. The Indian government has said it is investigating these allegations. The Indian government had deemed Nijjar and Pannun to be terrorists connected to the Khalistani movement, which fights for an independent state for Sikhs in Punjab and is outlawed in India. Both had been very vocal in stirring up diaspora support for the Khalistani movement. At the briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, Qazi said there were similarities between these alleged assassination plots and those that he said took place in Pakistan. “I see a modus operandi quite similar to the killing in Canada,” he said. “It was done at the behest of Indian government. We have the passport details of both Indian agents who orchestrated the killings on Pakistani soil.” He added: “Clearly the Indian network of extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings has become a global phenomenon.” India and Pakistan are arch-rivals and India has long accused Pakistan of giving a safe haven to terrorists, in particular militants responsible for violence in the disputed region of Kashmir, which has been home to a long-running insurgency with an allegiance to Pakistan. Qazi said the government had evidence to show direct links between Indian agents and the murders of two Pakistani nationals, Muhammad Riaz in September and Shahid Latif in October last year. Riaz was shot dead while praying at a mosque in Rawalakot and Latif was killed outside a mosque in Sialkot. An investigation by Pakistani agencies into Latif’s killing found that “an Indian agent based in a third country orchestrated the assassination”, Qazi said. Similarly, after Pakistani authorities arrested the man accused of carrying out the murder of Riaz, he allegedly revealed that he had been recruited and guided by two Indian agents. Qazi said the murders were orchestrated by Indian intelligence using a “sophisticated international set-up” spread over several countries, and that social media was used to recruit teams of financiers, locaters and assassins within Pakistan and outside to carry out the murders. He claimed Pakistani authorities had evidence of transactions linking the killings to an Indian agent. He said investigations into other incidents were continuing. Calling the alleged killings “completely unacceptable”, Qazi said India needed to be held accountable. “India must be held accountable internationally for its blatant violation of international law,” he said. “India’s assassination of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani soil is a violation of its sovereignty and a breach of the UN charter.”