Islamabad, Pakistan — Since June 2021, Pakistan has tracked and accused Indian intelligence agencies of multiple attempts (some successful) to assassinate individuals that New Delhi considers to be terrorists protected by Islamabad. I've been doing it.
Three months after the Pakistani government formally made similar claims against India, British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday endorsed these claims.
But despite little independent confirmation and growing suspicions about New Delhi, including from India's friends the United States and Canada, in an murky world of spies and contract killers, New Delhi For many years, he denied any involvement in extraterritorial assassinations.
Here's what we know about the alleged murder in Pakistan, what the charges are limited to, and the implications of the charges.
Who is India accused of killing in Pakistan?
Pakistani security officials who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said they believed at least six killings in 2023 and two in the previous year were carried out by “hostile intelligence” (code for India's external spy agency). admitted that it was. Research and Analysis Department — and was doing research.
In January, Pakistan's top diplomat also claimed at a press conference that there was “credible evidence” of India's involvement in the killings in the country.
“These are murder-for-hire cases involving sophisticated international organizations spanning multiple jurisdictions,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Sirs Sajjad Qazi told reporters in Islamabad on January 25.
Qazi specifically mentioned the killings of Mohammad Riaz, who was killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in September 2023, and Shahid Latif, who was killed a month later in the city of Sialkot in eastern Punjab state. . The diplomat claimed that both murders were orchestrated by Indian agents.
After the killing of the two men, Indian media outlets claimed that Riaz was a top commander of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The militant group has long blamed New Delhi for some of the deadliest attacks on its soil. These include the 2008 attack in Mumbai where gunmen killed 166 people in three days. According to Indian channels, Latif has ties to another Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and was a key figure involved in an attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in January 2016. It is said that he was a person. Seven Indian security personnel were killed.
Pakistan has not confirmed these related allegations.
Pakistan has not officially acknowledged the killings, but Qazi told a news conference that there are other cases the government is investigating.
“There are several other cases of similar significance at various stages of investigation,” he said.
The assassination charges include the killing of Sikh community leader Paramjit Singh Panjwar in Lahore, who was shot dead in May last year.
The Indian government has labeled Singh an “individual terrorist” and issued a notice. [PDF] In 2020, it accused him of arranging arms training and supplies to carry out attacks in India. Saleem Rehmani, who was also wanted by India as a “terrorist”, was shot dead in Pakistan in January 2022.
What about other Indian operations in Pakistan?
Abdul Saeed, a Sweden-based militant researcher, said that if the recent murders were actually orchestrated by India, they could have been killed three years ago, in June 2021, in a car near Hafiz Saeed's residence in Lahore. He said the bomb explosion was foreshadowed by a key event. Co-founder of LeT.
“Pakistani authorities believe that this incident was carried out by Indian intelligence agencies,” Saeed told Al Jazeera. “Then, starting in early 2022, attacks targeting key commanders of various former Kashmiri militant groups escalated.”
National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf first blamed India for the attack in front of Saeed's home in July 2021, but Pakistan raised the charges again in December 2022. Mr. Saeed, currently detained in Pakistan, is accused by India and the United States of masterminding the attack outside his home. 2008 Mumbai attacks.
India has demanded that Pakistan extradite Saeed, who denies the charges, to stand trial. The last such request was made by the Indian government in December last year.
The main point of contention between the two nuclear-armed neighbors is the picturesque Kashmir Valley, which is currently split in two and parts of which are controlled by both India and Pakistan.
They fought two of three full-scale wars over territory. India has accused Pakistan of supporting militant groups such as the LeT and JeM to stir up trouble in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan vehemently denies the charges and insists it only supports the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination against Indian rule. India calls Kashmiri militants “terrorists”.
What does India say about Pakistan's claims?
India, which denied the allegations in the latest report, also rejected Pakistan's earlier accusation that New Delhi spies were involved in the killings abroad.
In January, after Pakistan's foreign minister's press conference, India's foreign ministry described the allegations as a “false” propaganda attempt by Pakistan and said Pakistan “reaps what it sows.”
“As the world knows, Pakistan has long been a center of terrorism, organized crime and illegal cross-border activities. We are publicly warning that we will be swallowed up by a culture of violence,” the Indian statement said.
However, Pakistan is no longer the only country raising such suspicions against India.
Has India been accused of other murders abroad?
The allegations and reports of India's involvement in the killing of Pakistani nationals come at a time when New Delhi is also being accused by the United States and Canada of possibly being involved in plots to assassinate dissidents in those countries.
In November, U.S. prosecutors announced that Indian intelligence officials masterminded a plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Panun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, in New York. Nikhil Gupta, the middleman tasked with finding the killer, has been arrested in the Czech Republic. Prosecutors say the plot was unraveled when Gupta contacted a contract killer who turned out to be on the payroll of a U.S. federal agency.
Earlier in August, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood in parliament and publicly accused India of killing another Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, near Vancouver. These allegations led to a deep freeze in relations between India and Canada.
India has denied any involvement in Nijjar's murder and said it was investigating the charges brought by U.S. prosecutors. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said it is not India's policy to carry out targeted killings abroad.
What does all this mean for Pakistan?
Saeed, the security analyst, said recent killings in Pakistan, if indeed linked to Indian spies, raise questions about the effectiveness of Pakistan's security agencies.
“These targeted individuals previously belonged to pro-Pakistan armed groups. Despite peer pressure, these individuals refrained from hostilities against security forces and remained loyal to the Pakistani state. ” he pointed out.
The possible involvement of Indian security agencies in these attacks could signal a change in New Delhi's approach, he said.
He said, “If substantiated, such actions could indicate a strategic move aimed at undermining Pakistan's ability to escalate the insurgency in Kashmir against Indian forces.”