The elections are approaching and an impending Modi victory on the cards has woken up the enemies of India to taken up the cudgels against the Prime Minister and his government with a barrage of false and malicious anti-India propaganda at the behest of intelligent agencies in the west. One such incident was a report by the British publication the “Guardian” on how India is eliminating terrorists those linked to terror in India with ease, stealth and precision on Pakistani soil. The report claimed it had seen evidence provided by Pakistani security agencies, and noted that Indian officers confirmed the new policy of assassinating enemies and dissidents on foreign soil. The report also cited unnamed senior officials from two separate intelligence agencies in Pakistan as saying that Islamabad suspected India’s involvement in ‘almost 20 killings since 2020 carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan’.
“After Pulwama, the approach changed to target the elements outside the country before they are able to launch an attack or create any disturbance. We could not stop the attacks because ultimately their safe havens were in Pakistan, so we had to get to the source,” the Guardian quoted one Indian intelligence operative as saying.
There is an unwritten policy in foreign affairs and diplomacy that such extrajudicial actions remain covert. The Indian government cannot tom-tom these actions. However, the “Guardian” article provided the fodder for the BJP to use it as a election plank to extoll its resolve for vengeance against the cowardly terrorists and ISI.
The Ministry of External Affairs in customary fashion had categorically denied the report by The Guardian, reiterating an earlier statement made by Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, affirming that targeted killings in other countries were “not the policy of the government of India” and that they were part of an orchestrated attempt at “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.
Defence Minister while speaking to News18 expressed the same views, however, the Guardian misread his remarks and, in a follow, up article took it as an affirmation that the government carried out extrajudicial killings Post Pathankot, Uri and Pulwama incidents India resorted to surgical and air strikes targeting specific terrorist camps without causing any collateral damage.
CM Yogi said in Hindi “Chun-Chun Ke Maare Gaye Hai…” quoting The Guardian’s report in PM Modi’s presence.
On the other hand, leaders who are a rung lower the Union ministers used the report as election fodder. Recently, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath quoted the Guardian’s report highlighting India’s involvement in more than 20 targeted killings in Pakistan. Addressing a public rally in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi Adityanath said, “Two days ago, a report by a British newspaper attracted the attention of the world and all of us. It mentioned how terrorists were killed inside Pakistan. Only The Guardian can tell what the source of this report is. Today, the world has also accepted that terrorism is a challenge, and India will lead the world in dealing with it.”
Only a couple of days ago, the terrorist who murdered alleged India spy Sarabjit Singh who was lodged in a Pakistani jail was killed by unknown gunmen in Lahore. There is now a fear of “unknown” in Pakistan – “unknown” men who have been targeting terrorists wanted in India. The operation is so stealthy that the Pakistani security agencies haven’t been able to capture a single preparator till now. This has been on of the hallmark of the entire operation.
The USA is culprit No. 1 in this regard, having carried out covert operations across the world involving the CIA, triggering coup d’etats, targeted elimination of opponents, killing the 9/11 terrorists at will without batting an eyelid. And USA’s double standards in this regard is well known questioning others if similar operations are carried out in their interest of security and national interests. It is a well known fact that people are aware of such operations by intelligence agencies such as the Soviet/Russian KGB (now FSB), UK’s Mi5, Israeli Mossad, French Directorate-General For External Security (DGSE) or the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) which has been cultivated by popular media like books and movies. Indians have been overfed with such pieces of propaganda over the years but no word is mentioned of such operations by India’s intelligence agencies. Therefore, the latest developments is a welcome change for Indians who have been lapping up these events of extrajudicial killings with open arms and glee.
Our Bureau