ISLAMABAD-UNS: Pakistan’s Foreign Office stated Thursday Islamabad has credible evidence linking Indian agents to the assassination of two Pakistani nationals on Pakistani soil.
At a press briefing in Islamabad, the foreign secretary shared the details of India’s sophisticated and sinister campaign of extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings inside Pakistan.
The credible evidence FO official Syrus Sajjad Qazi was referring to is linked to the deaths of two Pakistanis, Shahid Latif and Muhammad Riaz, in 2023.
Qazi said these were killings-for-hire cases involving a sophisticated international setup spread over multiple jurisdictions.
Last year, Canada and the United States had levelled similar allegations against India.
The foreign secretary said that Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan, adding that “they recruited, financed and supported criminals, terrorists and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations”.
“Indian media and social media accounts immediately claimed and glorified these killings as successful retribution against “enemies” of India and projected their capacity to carry out these illegal acts. Potential assassins were recruited, using social media, talent spotters and fake Da’esh accounts,” he added.
“There was complete compartmentalization of the various components of the operation with employment of teams of financiers, locators, and assassins. Elaborate exit plans were developed to obscure all potential tracks,” the FO official went on to add.
Sharing the details about the two assassinations, the FO official said, “Shahid Latif was assassinated outside a mosque in Sialkot on October 11, 2023. A thorough investigation revealed that Yogesh Kumar, an Indian agent based in a third country, had orchestrated the assassination.”
“This agent recruited Muhammad Umair, a labourer in the third country, to act as a contact with local criminals in Pakistan to track down and kill Shahid Latif. Local criminals were hired who were able to locate Shahid Latif, but they were unable to carry out the execution.”
“After some of the failed attempts, Muhammad himself was personally sent to Pakistan to carry out the assassination,” the FO official said, adding that Muhammad cobbled up a team of five target killers and succeeded in assassinating Shahid Latif.
“Based on the confessional statements and technical evidence, law enforcement authorities quickly apprehended the target killers, including Muhammad Umair, who were trying to flee the country on Oct 12, 2023,” Qazi said.
According to the FO official, all those involved in the assassination were arrested and a case was brought in the court of law. “We have evidence of transactions made in the process linking the entire chain to Indian agent Yogesh Kumar,” affirmed Qazi.
About the second killing, the foreign secretary said that another Indian agent got Muhammad Riaz assassinated during Fajr prayers inside a mosque in Rawalakot on September 8, 2023.
He said that law enforcement agencies tracked his assassin, Muhammad Abdullah Ali, and took him into custody on September 15, 2023, from the Karachi airport, adding that interrogation revealed Ali was recruited and guided by Indian agents Ashok Kumar Anand and Yogesh Kumar.
According to Qazi, the Indian agents utilised the social media platform Telegram to recruit Ali, claiming that he received payments and was provided with weapons and ammunition. This case was being tried in the court of law, he added.
The foreign secretary went on to say that the investigators “quickly identified” Ali’s facilitators on the basis of confessional statements and technical evidence. “We have documentary, financial and forensic evidence of the involvement of the two Indian agents who masterminded these assassinations,” he said, adding that the Pakistan government was releasing the passport details of these agents.
He further said that Pakistan had reached out to the governments of relevant third countries.
The FO official stated that there were a few other cases of similar gravity at various stages of investigation revealing a “growing sophistication and brazenness of Indian-sponsored terrorist acts in Pakistan”.
“Clearly the Indian network of extra-judicial and extra-territorial killings has become a global phenomenon,” the foreign secretary said.
The foreign secretary said that India must be held accountable internationally for its blatant violation of international laws. “India’s assassination of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani soil is a violation of its sovereignty and a breach of the UN charter,” he said, calling it “completely unacceptable”.
