'False and malicious': India rejects allegation that it was involved in killings of two terrorists in Pakistan
NEW DELHI: India has rejected the Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary’s allegation that two Pakistanis (both are designated terrorists in India) were killed in connivance with Indian agencies in 2023.
"We have seen reports regarding remarks by Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary. This is their latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda. As the world knows, Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime and illegal transnational activities. India and many other countries have publicly warned Pakistan cautioning that it would be consumed by its own culture of terror and violence," said Randhir Jaiswal, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson.
The two men Pakistan is referring to are Shahid Latif, a designated terrorist who was the mastermind of the 2016 attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, and Muhammad Riaz of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who was responsible for a terrorist attack in Rajouri in 2023, leaving seven dead, and injuring 13.
India has also said that Pakistan will reap what it sows. "To blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution," Jaiswal added.
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, during a press briefing said that they have 'credible evidence' of links between Indian agents and the killings of two Pakistani nationals in Sialkot and Rawalkot last year.
Qazi further said that India was running a sophisticated and sinister campaign of extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings inside Pakistan.
"Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan. They have recruited, financed and supported criminals, terrorists and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations," Qazi alleged.
Explaining the modus operandi of these two killings, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary alleged that Shahid Latif was killed on October 11, 2023 outside a mosque in Sialkot through an Indian agent based in a third country. The second killing of Muhammad Riaz took place on September 8, 2023 inside a mosque in Rawalakot.