NEW DELHI: Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday caused a sensation when he refrained from scotching a report in a foreign daily alleging that Indian agencies used hired guns to eliminate 20 Pakistan-based terrorists who were on India’s ‘most wanted’ list for killings and other acts of violence.
Asked about a report in the UK daily The Guardian tying a spate of mysterious killings inside Pakistan to Indian agencies, Singh told TV channel News 18, “You mean terrorists? If any terrorist tries to disturb peace in India, tries to create turmoil in our country, he will not be spared, he will be given a befitting reply.Even if he enters Pakistan, we shall enter Pakistan and kill them.”
Won’t show mercy if someone tries to threaten India: Rajnath
When told that Rajnath’s remarks were in line with the “yeh naya Bharat hai, ghar me ghus kar marenge” stand delineated by PM Narendra Modi earlier in the day at his rally in Churu in Rajasthan, the defence minister nodded in affirmation and said, “The PM has rightly said… this is the power of India, Pakistan has also realised it. India has always tried to maintain cordial relations with its neighbours and there is no history of India trying to annex anyone’s territory, but if someone tries to threaten our country, and encourages terror activities, he will be shown no mercy.”
The Guardian report alleged that India rolled out a pre-emptive anti-terror policy after realising that terrorists in Pakistan could carry out more Pulwama-type attacks. It also alleged that the policy was greenlighted by the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, which, inspired by the example of Israeli and Russian agencies, decided to nip terror threats before they matured and, for that purpose, set up a special cell in the UAE. The newspaper alleged that people working with RAW-recruited accomplices, many of them Pakistanis, in Dubai who engaged local actors, some of them jihadis, who believed they were targeting infidels, to carry out assassination plots.
Earlier in the day, MEA had denied allegations that India carried out targeted assassinations in Pakistan, and called them “false and malicious propaganda”. The Guardian report quoted intelligence operatives in India and Pakistan to claim that India’s move was part of wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.
The ministry also underlined a previous statement by foreign minister S Jaishankar in which he said that targeted killings in other countries were “not the policy of govt of India”. The killings last year of a number of terrorists, whose existence was denied by Pakistan as it rebuffed India’s efforts for cooperation, had foxed agencies and others in Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Riyaz Ahmed was killed outside Al Quddus Masjid in Rawalakot, PoK, in Sept last year. Chief of Khalistan Commando Force, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while he was on a morning walk near his residence in Lahore in May last year. Others killed were LeT operatives Maulana Ziaur Rehman, who was shot dead in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar locality, and Mufti Qaiser Farooq, killed in Gulshan-i-Umar seminary last year. Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorist Shahid Latif, the chief handler of the fidayeen squad that attacked the Pathankot airbase in 2016, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in a mosque in Sialkot on Oct 10 last year.
Asked about a report in the UK daily The Guardian tying a spate of mysterious killings inside Pakistan to Indian agencies, Singh told TV channel News 18, “You mean terrorists? If any terrorist tries to disturb peace in India, tries to create turmoil in our country, he will not be spared, he will be given a befitting reply.Even if he enters Pakistan, we shall enter Pakistan and kill them.”
Won’t show mercy if someone tries to threaten India: Rajnath
When told that Rajnath’s remarks were in line with the “yeh naya Bharat hai, ghar me ghus kar marenge” stand delineated by PM Narendra Modi earlier in the day at his rally in Churu in Rajasthan, the defence minister nodded in affirmation and said, “The PM has rightly said… this is the power of India, Pakistan has also realised it. India has always tried to maintain cordial relations with its neighbours and there is no history of India trying to annex anyone’s territory, but if someone tries to threaten our country, and encourages terror activities, he will be shown no mercy.”
The Guardian report alleged that India rolled out a pre-emptive anti-terror policy after realising that terrorists in Pakistan could carry out more Pulwama-type attacks. It also alleged that the policy was greenlighted by the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, which, inspired by the example of Israeli and Russian agencies, decided to nip terror threats before they matured and, for that purpose, set up a special cell in the UAE. The newspaper alleged that people working with RAW-recruited accomplices, many of them Pakistanis, in Dubai who engaged local actors, some of them jihadis, who believed they were targeting infidels, to carry out assassination plots.
Earlier in the day, MEA had denied allegations that India carried out targeted assassinations in Pakistan, and called them “false and malicious propaganda”. The Guardian report quoted intelligence operatives in India and Pakistan to claim that India’s move was part of wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.
The ministry also underlined a previous statement by foreign minister S Jaishankar in which he said that targeted killings in other countries were “not the policy of govt of India”. The killings last year of a number of terrorists, whose existence was denied by Pakistan as it rebuffed India’s efforts for cooperation, had foxed agencies and others in Pakistan.
Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Riyaz Ahmed was killed outside Al Quddus Masjid in Rawalakot, PoK, in Sept last year. Chief of Khalistan Commando Force, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while he was on a morning walk near his residence in Lahore in May last year. Others killed were LeT operatives Maulana Ziaur Rehman, who was shot dead in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar locality, and Mufti Qaiser Farooq, killed in Gulshan-i-Umar seminary last year. Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorist Shahid Latif, the chief handler of the fidayeen squad that attacked the Pathankot airbase in 2016, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in a mosque in Sialkot on Oct 10 last year.
