India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has been implicated in an alleged assassination program targeting individuals in Pakistan starting in 2021.
According to a report by The Washington Post, the RAW plan reportedly mirrored tactics used previously against Khalistan separatists in the United States and Canada.
The program allegedly involved six killings, executed not by Indian nationals but rather by local Pakistani criminals or Afghan hired guns, as per sources cited in the report. The operations supposedly employed Dubai-based businessmen as intermediaries who organized surveillance, coordinated the killings, and managed payments through informal financial channels known as hawala.
Among the alleged victims was Zahoor Mistry, accused of killing an Indian during the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight. An Indian intelligence official, reportedly using the alias Tanaz Ansari, coordinated the efforts to eliminate Mistry, involving two Pakistanis and two Afghans to execute the plan. Additional operatives from Southeast Asia, Africa, and West Asia allegedly facilitated financial transactions for the operation.
Another significant case linked to the alleged assassination ring involves the killings of Syed Khalid Raza, a former Kashmiri activist, and Shahid Latif, the purported mastermind behind the 2016 Pathankot attack in India. In October 2023, a group led by labourer Muhammad Umair reportedly killed Latif in Sialkot. Authorities later arrested Umair, who confessed to travelling from Dubai to carry out the assassination and disclosed the location of a safe house used by Indian agents.
Read: Sikh Leader Pannun Accuses Modi in US Assassination Plot Charges
These accusations, as per The Washington Post, underscore a series of claims about RAW’s involvement in extrajudicial killings on foreign soil, including plans to assassinate prominent Khalistan separatists. Despite the gravity of these allegations, India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not responded to inquiries about these specific incidents.
This revelation follows a report by The Guardian in April 2024, which alleged that the Indian government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sanctioned killings in Pakistan. These reports have exacerbated already strained relations between India and Pakistan, particularly following the controversial revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and the arrest of Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav in 2016.
Read: U.S. Charges RAW Official in Assassination Plot Against Sikh Leader
Pakistan maintains that the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status is a precondition for normalizing relations with India, reflecting ongoing tensions and the complex geopolitical landscape in South Asia.
