"New India is...": Pak UN envoy brings up "targeted assassinations" in homeland, elsewhere

New York [US], May 22 (ANI): In perhaps the first acknowledgement of its kind on a global forum that the “new India is a dangerous entity”, Pakistan's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations, Munir Akram invoked the alleged targeted and extra-judicial assassinations in his homeland and elsewhere.

Pakistan's permanent representative at the world body also quoted from a report in a leading US daily to say the "new India comes into your home and kills you”.

Addressing the General Assembly on May 2, Akram said, "Pakistan's foreign minister informed the Security Council, as well as the secretary general and the president of the General Assembly of India's campaign of targeted assassinations in Pakistan. This extra-territorial state terrorism is not limited to Pakistan. It has been extended to targeted killings of political opponents in Canada and attempted in the United States and probably in other countries."

“The Washington Post reported that Prime Minister Modi last week told his cheering supporters, and I quote, "Today, even India's enemies know this is Modi. This is the new India. This new India comes into your home and kills you". This new India is a dangerous entity, it is a net provider of insecurity, not security,” Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN alleged.

Earlier, top British daily, The Guardian, claimed in a report that the Indian government carried out assassinations of wanted individuals deep inside Pakistan as part of a "wider strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil". 

It said, citing intelligence sources, that targeted assassinations increased significantly in 2023, claiming India's involvement in the suspected deaths of about 15 people, "most of whom were shot at close range by unknown gunmen".

Earlier, some countries in the West raised concerns over what they claimed were targeted killings on their soil at the behest of the Indian government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused 'agents' allegedly in the employ of the Indian government of killing Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan leader and a designated terrorist by the country's elite National Investigation Agency (NIA), in 2020.

However, India has dismissed the claim as 'absurd' and 'motivated'.

Nijjar was shot and killed as he came out of a Gurdwara in Surrey in June last year. A purported video clip of his killing that reportedly surfaced in March, this year, showing Nijjar being shot by armed men in what was alleged to be a 'contract killing'.

In a recent development in the Nijjar case, the Canadian Police arrested four Indian nationals for their alleged involvement in the killing of the separatist Khalistani leader outside a gurudwara in British Columbia last June. 

Reacting to the arrests, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar denied receiving any evidence implicating Indian nationals' involvement in the killing in Canada of the India-designated terrorist.

Responding to media queries, Jaishankar said, "I also read that another arrest has been made. If that person is an Indian national, then usually by consular practice, you inform the government or the embassy of the country of origin. But beyond that, we have long maintained that if anything, any event in Canada, any violence in Canada, has any evidence or information which is relevant to be investigated in India, we are open to investigating it."

He emphasised that while any Indian national's arrest would usually prompt notification to the government or embassy, no specific evidence justifying investigation by Indian agencies has been received to date.

"But to date, we have never received anything, which is specific and worthy of being pursued by our investigative agencies. And I'm not aware anything has changed in the last few days in that regard," the External Affairs Minister said at a media interaction at a seminar on Indian Capital Markets 'Roadmap for Viksit Bharat' at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Mumbai earlier.

At a weekly media briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), too, informed that Canada had not formally conveyed the arrests and India had not yet received any consular access request.

On being asked about the fourth Indian arrested by Canada in connection with the Nijjar killing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We have seen reports of the fourth person being arrested. We have not been formally conveyed of it. So far, we have not received any consular access request as well.”

Earlier, campaigning for the ongoing general elections in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a telling remark vis-a-vis its western neighbour, saying India does not send dossiers on terrorism anymore but eliminates terrorists in their own backyard.

“Today, India doesn’t send dossiers. Aaj Bharat ghar mein ghus ke marta hai (Today India strikes back at terrorists on their own turf)," PM Modi said at a poll rally in Maharashtra’s Latur.

Expanding on the difference in how his government tackles terrorism as compared to previous Congress regimes at the Centre, Prime Minister Modi said the earlier approach of handing dossiers to Pakistan has been replaced by taking out the wanted terror conspirators on their own turf.

At a separate rally, PM Modi doubled down on remarks made by the INDIA bloc leader Farooq Abdullah that Pakistan was not wearing bangles and was a nuclear-amed nation, saying, "Pakistan ne choodiyan nahi pehni hain, are bhai pehna denge" (I was told Pakistanis don't even have bangles, we will make them wear some)".

Addressing a public meeting in Muzaffarpur, PM Modi said, "These (Congress and INDIA alliance) people are so afraid that they see Pakistan's atom bombs even in their dreams. Can such a government and leader run the country? They (INDI alliance leaders) say, 'Pakistan ne choodiyan nahi pehni hain, are bhai pehna denge. Ab unko aata bhi chahiye, unke pass bijli bhi nahi hai, ab humein maloom nahi ki unke pass choodiyan bhi nahi hai'. (i am told Pakistanis don't even have bangles...we will make them wear some. They are desperately crying out for wheat, they don't have electricity and now they don't even have bangles to wear.) Some leaders in the Opposition are even giving clean chits to the 26/11 accused."

"Some people are doubting the surgical strikes and air strikes (after the Uri and Pulwama terror attacks). These leaders want to weaken the morale of our forces and cast aspersions on our nuclear power. It seems like 'INDI alliance ne India ke khilaf supari le li hai' (INDI partners have taken out a contract against the country)," PM Modi added. 

In the US, federal prosecutors earlier alleged the involvement of two Indian nationals, including a government employee, in a plot to murder Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Canadian also holding American citizenship, on its soil.

According to the indictment of the US Justice Department, an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, who is currently in custody, was charged with the murder-for-hire of Pannun. The US Justice Department claimed that an Indian government employee, who was not identified in the indictment filed, recruited Gupta to hire a hitman to allegedly assassinate Pannun, which was foiled by US authorities.

India set up a high-level committee to probe the matter. (ANI)