Extraterritorial killings by India need ‘coordinated response’
Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch speaks during the weekly briefing in Islamabad, November 02, 2023. PHOTO: ANADOLU AGENCY
The Foreign Office said on Friday said that the Indian network of extra-judicial and extra-territorial killings was now a “global phenomenon” and warned that India’s assassination of the Pakistanis on the Pakistani soil was a clear violation of the country’s sovereignty and a breach of the UN Charter.
The Foreign Office statement came a day after London-based daily newspaper, The Guardian, in a report detailed how the Indian government assassinated individuals in Pakistan, citing intelligence officials from both countries, as well as documents shared by Pakistani investigators.
The Foreign Office statement highlighted a press conference by Foreign Secretary Syrus Sajjad Qazi in January, in which he had said that there was “credible evidence” of links between Indian agents and the assassination of two Pakistani nationals in Sialkot and Rawalakot.
“These cases exposed the increasing sophistication and brazenness of Indian-sponsored terrorist acts inside Pakistan, with striking similarities to the pattern observed in other countries, including Canada and the United States,” the Foreign Office said.
“It is critical to bring to justice the perpetrators, facilitators, financiers and sponsors of these extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings. India must be held accountable internationally for its blatant violation of international law,” the Foreign Office added.
In October last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed that there was a link between Indian agents and the murder of a Sikh leader in Canada.
The next month, the US Justice Department had said an Indian government official directed an unsuccessful plot to assassinate a Sikh on US soil.
The Guardian report said that India had been publicly accused by Washington and Ottawa of involvement in the murders of activists on their soils, whom it considered hostile. It added that the fresh claims related to almost 20 killings since 2020, carried out by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan.
(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)