New York: In an unprecedented admission on a global stage, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram, characterized the “new India” as a perilous entity, alluding to alleged targeted and extrajudicial executions within his country and beyond.
Akram cited a prominent U.S. newspaper report to assert that the “new India intrudes into your home and executes you.” Addressing the General Assembly on May 2, Akram stated, “Pakistan’s Foreign Minister apprised the Security Council, the Secretary-General, and the President of the General Assembly about India’s campaign of targeted assassinations in Pakistan. This extraterritorial state terrorism extends beyond Pakistan, encompassing political adversaries’ targeted killings in Canada, attempted executions in the United States, and potentially other nations.”
“The Washington Post noted that Prime Minister Modi recently informed his enthusiastic supporters, and I quote, ‘Today, even India’s enemies recognize this is Modi. This is the new India. This new India intrudes into your home and executes you.’ This new India represents a menacing force, a net purveyor of insecurity rather than security,” Pakistan’s UN representative alleged.
Previously, a leading British newspaper, The Guardian, reported that the Indian government has executed individuals deep within Pakistan as part of a broader strategy to eliminate terrorists residing on foreign soil. Citing intelligence sources, the report indicated a significant rise in targeted assassinations in 2023, attributing around 15 deaths to India, most victims being shot at close range by unidentified gunmen.
Western countries have previously expressed apprehensions over alleged targeted killings on their soil orchestrated by the Indian government. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Indian ‘agents’ of assassinating Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan leader designated as a terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), in 2020.
India, however, dismissed these allegations as ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’. Nijjar was shot as he exited a Gurdwara in Surrey in June of the previous year. A purported video of his assassination, which emerged in March this year, depicted Nijjar being shot by armed assailants in what was alleged to be a ‘contract killing.’
In a recent development in the Nijjar case, Canadian police arrested four Indian nationals for their alleged involvement in the separatist Khalistani leader’s murder outside a Gurdwara in British Columbia last June. Responding to these arrests, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar denied receiving any evidence implicating Indian nationals in Nijjar’s killing in Canada.
Jaishankar stated, “I read about another arrest. If the individual is an Indian national, consular practice dictates notifying the government or the embassy of the country of origin. Beyond this, we have long maintained that if any event in Canada, any act of violence, has evidence or information pertinent to an investigation in India, we are open to investigating it.”
He emphasized that while any Indian national’s arrest typically prompts government or embassy notification, no specific evidence warranting investigation by Indian agencies has been received to date. “To date, we have not received anything specific and worthy of pursuit by our investigative agencies. Nothing has changed in this regard over the past few days,” the External Affairs Minister noted during a media interaction at a seminar on Indian Capital Markets ‘Roadmap for Viksit Bharat’ at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Mumbai.
At a weekly media briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) informed that Canada had not formally communicated the arrests and India had not received any consular access requests. When queried about the fourth Indian arrested by Canada in connection with Nijjar’s killing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We have observed reports of the fourth individual’s arrest. We have not been formally notified. So far, no consular access requests have been received.”
Campaigning for the ongoing general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi remarked on India’s western neighbor, asserting that India no longer sends dossiers on terrorism but eliminates terrorists on their own soil. “Today, India does not send dossiers. Aaj Bharat ghar mein ghus ke marta hai (Today India strikes back at terrorists on their own turf),” PM Modi stated at a rally in Maharashtra’s Latur.
Elaborating on his government’s counterterrorism approach compared to previous Congress regimes, Prime Minister Modi explained that the erstwhile practice of sending dossiers to Pakistan has been supplanted by neutralizing wanted terror conspirators on their home ground. At a separate rally, PM Modi responded to comments by INDIA bloc leader Farooq Abdullah about Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities, saying, “Pakistan ne choodiyan nahi pehni hain, are bhai pehna denge” (I was told Pakistanis don’t even have bangles, we will make them wear some).
Addressing a public gathering in Muzaffarpur, PM Modi said, “These (Congress and INDIA alliance) leaders are so frightened that they see Pakistan’s atom bombs in their dreams. Can such leadership govern the country? They say, ‘Pakistan ne choodiyan nahi pehni hain, are bhai pehna denge. They desperately need wheat and electricity, and now I hear they don’t even have bangles to wear.’ Some leaders in the Opposition are even exonerating the 26/11 accused.” “Some individuals are questioning the validity of surgical and air strikes (after the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks). These leaders seek to demoralize our forces and cast doubt on our nuclear capabilities. It seems like ‘INDI alliance ne India ke khilaf supari le li hai’ (INDI partners have taken out a contract against India),” PM Modi added.
In the United States, federal prosecutors earlier alleged that two Indian nationals, including a government employee, were involved in a plot to murder Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Canadian also holding American citizenship. According to the U.S. Justice Department indictment, an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, currently in custody, was charged with the murder-for-hire plot against Pannun.
The U.S. Justice Department claimed an Indian government employee, unnamed in the indictment, recruited Gupta to hire a hitman to assassinate Pannun, a plan thwarted by U.S. authorities. India has established a high-level committee to investigate the matter.