The Ministry of External Affairs has slammed and rejected allegations of assassinating individuals in Pakistan as part of a strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.

This came after a report by the Guardian, where Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives said India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), had ordered killings of terrorists in Pakistan.

The MEA denounced the allegations by reiterating an earlier statement that they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda” and emphasised a previous denial by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who said that targeted killings in other countries were “not the government of India’s policy”

Speaking to both Indian and Pakistani intelligence officials, and citing documents shared by Pakistani investigators, the report claims that 20 such targeted assassinations have been carried out since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan.

This comes as the US and Canada also accused India’s involvement in the botched murder plot of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an India-designated Khalistani terrorist in New York, and the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year.

The report mentioned India’s denial of the allegations and claimed that “Delhi has implemented a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India”.

 Indian intelligence officers said that RAW’s shift to focusing on terrorists living on foreign soil was triggered by the Pulwama attack in 2019, where 40 Indian paramilitary personnel were killed in a suicide bomb attack, for which the Jaish-e-Mohammed took responsibility.

“After Pulwama, the approach changed to target the elements outside the country before they are able to launch an attack or create any disturbance,” one Indian intelligence operative said. “We could not stop the attacks because ultimately their safe havens were in Pakistan, so we had to get to the source.”