‘False and malicious propaganda’: India dismisses Pak claims of role in terrorists’ killings in Sialkot and PoK

Hours after Pakistan claimed that it had “credible evidence” of links between “Indian agents” and the murders of two Pakistani terrorists associated with the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Sialkot and Rawalkot last year, New Delhi termed the claim as Islamabad’s latest attempt at “peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.

Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, “We have seen media reports regarding certain remarks by the Pakistan foreign secretary. It is Pakistan’s 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. Pakistan will reap what it sows. To blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi alleged at a press conference in Islamabad that India was carrying out “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” inside Pakistan.

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Shahid Latif, a key aide to Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and the mastermind of the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, was gunned down in a mosque at Sialkot in Punjab province on October 11, 2023.

On September 8, 2023, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, who was affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on January 1, 2023, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside the Al-Qudus mosque during pre-dawn prayers in the Rawalakot area in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The Pakistan foreign secretary said, while talking about Shahid Latif’s killing,“A detailed investigation revealed that an Indian agent, Yogesh Kumar, based in a third country, orchestrated the assassination.”

He alleged that Kumar recruited Muhammad Umair, a labourer in the third country, to act as a contact with local criminals in Pakistan to trace and assassinate Latif. However, “they were unable to carry out the execution”, he added.

“After some of the failed attempts, Muhammad himself was personally sent to Pakistan to carry out the assassination,” the Pakistani official said, adding that Muhammad had organised a team of five target killers and succeeded in his attempt.

All those involved in the killings were apprehended and a case is being tried in a court of law, the foreign secretary said. “We have evidence of transactions made in the process linking the entire chain to Indian agent Yogesh Kumar,” he claimed.

“Another Indian agent was involved in the killing of a Pakistan man, identified as Muhammad Riaz,” he claimed, possibly referring to Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim.

The killer, Muhammad Abdullah Ali, was arrested in Karachi while boarding a flight and the interrogation has revealed that he was “recruited and guided by Indian agents Ashok Kumar Anand and Yogesh Kumar,” Pakistan’s foreign secretary alleged.

He also said that “Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan. They recruited, financed and supported criminals, terrorists and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations.”

(With PTI inputs from Islamabad)

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