India’s target killing shows its ‘extrajudicial network’ has gone global:Pakistan

Pakistan not surprised by Canada’s allegations against India: Syrus Qazi

Islamabad_Pakistan has said that the news of Indian involvement in an extrajudicial killing of a Sikh leader in Canada has shown that New Delhi’s network of extra-territorial killings has now gone global,

“India’s assassination of a Canadian national on Canadian soil is a clear violation of international law and the UN principle of state sovereignty,” the FO spokesperson said at a weekly press briefing.

pokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch was responding to a question on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement that he had “credible evidence” linking the Indian state to Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder must be based on “some facts.”

 

Nijjar, 45, was shot dead in his vehicle by two masked gunmen in the busy car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in British Columbia, a Canadian province.

 

The spokesperson said the incident was a “reckless and irresponsible act” that called into question India’s reliability as a credible international partner and its claims for enhanced global responsibilities.

 

About India’s previous record, she said for decades, the Indian intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) had been actively involved in abductions and assassinations in South Asia.

 

Pakistan, she said, remained a target of a series of targeted killings and espionage by RAW.

 

She recalled that in December 2022, Pakistan released a comprehensive dossier providing concrete and irrefutable evidence of India’s involvement in the Lahore attack of June 2021. The attack was planned and executed by Indian intelligence.

 

In 2016, she said, a high-ranking Indian military officer Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav confessed his involvement in directing, financing, and executing terror and sabotage in Pakistan.

 

On India’s accusation linking Pakistan with the Anantnag encounter, she said Pakistan had been stating time and again that India had the “habit of implicating Pakistan in anything that happens under its watch, especially in IIOJK (Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir)”.

 

Asked about engagement with India at levels of the foreign ministries and Director General Military Operations (DGMOs), she said the main channel of communication between Pakistan and India, i.e., at the level of diplomatic missions had reduced its strength to charge d’affaires.

 

She mentioned that if functional, the DGMO level also existed between the two countries.

earlier,

Pakistan isn’t surprised by the allegations Canada levelled against the Indian government over the killing of a Sikh leader, Foreign Secretary Syrus Qazi said on Wednesday.

During a media briefing at the sidelines of the 78th UNGA session in New York, he said India’s terrorism in Canada was not a matter of surprise for Pakistan.

The Pakistani diplomat’s statement comes after Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Indian government could be “involved” in the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June this year.

Qazi said Pakistan didn’t find anything unusual in the Canadian PM’s allegations as Pakistan had arrested a serving Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Yadav, an operative of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) from Balochistan in March 2016.

The Indian spy was later sentenced to death after he was found guilty of espionage and terror activities to destabilise Pakistan.

The son of a Sikh leader killed earlier this year says he feels a sense of relief after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government on Monday of being involved in the assassination.

Balraj Sing Nijjar, 21, was speaking publicly for the first time since the shooting dead of his father Hardeep, 45, on June 18, shortly after evening prayers at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia.

Trudeau said the House of Commons that intelligence reports had found credible links between the Indian government agents and the killing, though no one has been charged yet.

The Indian government had previously offered a reward for Hardeep’s arrest, accusing the gurdwara president of heading a violent separatist movement for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Balraj, the elder of Hardeep’s two sons, said his family and close friends always suspected the Indian government was behind his father’s brazen killing.

“It was just a matter of time when the truth would come out, so when I heard that yesterday there was a sense of relief, you know its funny coming to the public eye that the Indian government is involved,” Balraj told Reuters.

🔴LIVE: Spokesperson's Weekly Press Briefing 20-09-23 at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad https://t.co/qFqTPWNC35

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) September 20, 2023