Report claims India behind ‘methodical’ assassination campaign deep inside Pakistan

January 2, 2025 by Joseph Fitsanakis Le

A NEW REPORT IN The Washington Post newspaper claims that the Indian government is behind a “methodical assassination program” that has been targeting individuals deep inside India’s nuclear arch-rival Pakistan. According to the report, which was published on Tuesday, the covert assassination program is the work of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s primary external intelligence agency. It was allegedly authorized by India’s popular and controversial Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has also been overseeing its implementation since he was re-elected to office in 2021.

Since 2023, intelNews has covered/ the high-level dispute between India and Canada, after Ottawa uncovered an extensive Indian assassination program targeting Sikh separatist leaders on Canadian soil. Last month, intelNews guest editor Dr. Stephan Blancke analyzed the mounting concern across the European Union about Indian covert activities that target members of the Indian expatriate community on European soil. But The Washington Post report touches on a potentially new dimension of India’s assassination program, which focuses on Pakistan.

According to the report, Prime Minister Modi has been fully supporting RAW’s targeted killings program since at least 2021. In the ensuing years there have been six assassinations inside Pakistan that bear the hallmarks of RAW operations. These operations have been carried out through a “sophisticated network” of intermediaries in the Middle East —particularly in Dubai— who command compartmented teams of surveillance operatives, hitmen, as well as logisticians. Payments are allegedly facilitated through informal hawala networks managed by Middle Easterners, Afghans, and others.

Many of those killed have been current and former members of militant Pakistani-aided groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, who have been designated terrorist organizations by most Western nations. For this reason, the West, including the United States, have been hesitant to accuse India of breaking international law. The Washington Post report claims that the Pakistanis have expressed their frustration to the United States, through Nadeem Anjum, director general of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate, Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency. In 2022, Anjum reportedly informed William Burns, director of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency, about the Indian assassination program. However, no notable action was taken by the United States in response to Anjum’s revelations, the article claims.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 02 January 2025 | Permalink