In April, a long report by The Guardian revealed how India was behind the transnational killings in Pakistan, Canada and US. The report reveals that the top Indian intelligence officials spoke to The Guardian and confirmed it was systematically killing its perceived enemies in foreign lands especially Pakistan where at least twenty such killings, majority of them high profile personalities, happened in different regions of the country. This was further backed by the sensitive documents about the issue shared by Pakistani intelligence officials, pointing towards a systematic strategy of foreign Indian agencies to assassinate people as part of an “emboldened approach to national security after 2019”. “. It is pertinent to mention that India’s Research and Analysis Wing RAW, believed to be behind these killings, is directly controlled by the office of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The surge in deaths in 2023 in Pakistan was attributed to Indian intelligence sleeper cells primarily based in the United Arab Emirates. These cells are alleged to have lavishly funded local criminals or financially vulnerable Pakistanis to execute the assassinations by offering them substantial amounts in millions of rupees.

Days after the Guardian report was published, Indian defense minister Rajnath Singh while giving an interview to an Indian television news network confirmed extrajudicial killings in Pakistan and threatened to kill their enemies inside its neighboring country. He further said that their prime minister had made it very clear that their policy (to kill people on foreign soil) was right and that Pakistan too has now understood it very well! India has been publicly accused by Ottawa and Washington of involvement in the murder of Khalistani Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada and a botched assassination attempt on another Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh in the US last year. Interestingly, India outrightly denied any involvement in these cases and termed their agent who was caught in US as “rouge” or disgruntled element, disassociating themselves from him. While they couldn’t openly acknowledge being behind these killings, they openly admitted their involvement in Killings inside Pakistan thereby brazenly laying bare their intentions and foreign policy towards the country. Despite India’s brazen attempts to destabilize its neighboring country or what Pakistan’s foreign office termed as “brazenness of Indian-sponsored terrorist acts inside Pakistan”, the newly appointed ministers of the country were recently seen bating for trade with India and normalize ties with them. 

There arise some important questions. First, has Pakistan failed to provide security to Kashmiris who had migrated to there after Kashmiris decided to start an armed rebellion against the Indian rule? Kashmiris have every right to be there in AJK which is under the administration of Pakistan and involve themselves in different resistance activities and it was the responsibility of Pakistani government to provide security to them. How is it even possible that the rouge Indian agencies have been successful in assassinating Kashmiris without facing a robust counter strategy. If India can eliminate individuals at will within Pakistani borders, does it possess the capability to significantly destabilize or inflict harm on Pakistan at any given moment? How deeply is India entangled in current waves of anti-Pakistan terrorism? And, can Pakistan go the Canada way and publicly call out India’s extraterritorial killings and devise strategies to counter such terrorist acts? Pakistani government must answer these and other related questions and revisit its policy of normalizing relations with the Indian state. Nobody is against any kind of bonhomie and trade between the two countries, but it should not come at the cost of national security and strategic interests of the country.