New Delhi:

The British “Guardian” report accused India of carrying out targeted killings in Pakistan to eliminate terrorists. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied this. The ministry called it “false and malicious anti-India propaganda” and quoted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as saying that targeted killings in other countries “are not the policy of the Indian government”.

The ministry’s denial was cited in the Guardian report, which claimed that Delhi “implements a policy of targeting those it considers to be hostile to India”.

The report said that Indian intelligence agency RAW had carried out as many as 20 such assassinations since the 2019 Pulwama attack, and mentioned that this was based on evidence provided by Pakistan and interviews with intelligence officials on both sides of the border.

The Guardian quoted an unnamed Indian official as saying that India was inspired by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and Russia’s KGB – which have been linked to extrajudicial killings on foreign soil – and the 2018 The killing of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi. .

Pakistani authorities have provided documents about some of the killings, but they could not be independently verified, the report said. According to the report, Pakistani officials also claimed that the killings were carefully planned by sleeper cells set up by Indian intelligence agencies in the United Arab Emirates.

Earlier, the United States and Canada accused India of involvement in assassinations and such attempts on foreign soil.

In September last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that there were “credible allegations” that India was involved in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijar. Nijjar, a Canadian citizen and a wanted terrorist in India, was shot dead outside his monastery in Surrey in June. India denies the accusation, calling it “ridiculous.”

Later, the United States claimed they had foiled an attempt to kill another Khalistani separatist, Gulpatwant Singh Pannu.

The United States claimed that Pannon, an American-Canadian citizen, was the target of an assassination plot planned by Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed Indian government official.

India said it was reviewing U.S. submissions on “links between organized criminals, arms smugglers, terrorists and others” alleged by the United States.

Former foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “India takes such input seriously as it also affects our own national security interests. Relevant departments are already reviewing the issue of US input.”

India later told the United States that its investigation found a rogue official was involved, Bloomberg reported. The report cited unnamed intelligence officials as saying the person was no longer cooperating with the agency.