Indian minister's remarks on Pakistan killings could damage foreign relations

He hints that intelligence agency may have carried out assassinations on foreign soil

- Rohini Mohan

An admission by India's Defence Minister that the country's intelligence agency may have carried out the assassinations of over 20 people in Pakistan could boost the Indian Prime Minister's election chances, but at the same time damage New Delhi's relations with other countries.

While some voters in the election-bound country might find the idea of anti-terrorism extrajudicial killings appealing, raising the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their eyes, the lawlessness of such acts carried out in another country could draw condemnation from foreign governments.

A Guardian report on April 5 quoted anonymous Indian intelligence operatives who claimed that India had since 2020 assassinated at least 20 terrorists and conspirators in Pakistan, as part of its strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil. Behind the killings, the report said, was India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

The account appears to support suspicions that New Delhi has developed a policy of targeting people it considers hostile to India. These new claims from Pakistan follow allegations by Canada and the US of Indian operatives assassinating dissidents, including a Sikh activist in Canada, and an attempted assassination of another Sikh in the US in 2023.

India strongly refuted these allegations.

On the Pakistan killings, the Indian government has, however, given mixed signals, with one eye presumably on elections to be held between April 19 and June 1.

India's Ministry of External Affairs has ardently denied any involvement in the Pakistan killings, and called the allegations "false and malicious" propaganda.

Echoing External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's previous statement, the ministry affirmed that targeted killings abroad were "not the policy of the government of India".