Washington: The United States, which has a tendency to school countries on human rights issues, has denied interfering in a recent media report that claimed India conducted multiple targeted killings in Pakistan. In fact, the Biden administration official said America would not interfere in the issue, however, it encouraged both sides to avoid escalation. The report claims that 20 such targeted assassinations have been carried out since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan.
The latest development came after a reporter asked US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller about a recent report published by the UK English daily, The Guardian, which claimed the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, was involved in killings in Pakistan. However, it did not exhibit any concrete evidence to substantiate its claim, except for publishing a few bytes of Pakistani officials.
"We don't have any comment": US
"We have been following the media reports about this issue. We don't have any comment on the underlying allegations. But of course, while we're not going to get in the middle of this situation, we encourage both sides to avoid escalation and find a resolution through dialogue," Miller said in a routine press conference in Washington on Monday.
Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs rejected allegations of assassinating individuals in Pakistan as part of a strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil. The MEA denounced the allegations by reiterating an earlier statement that they were "false and malicious anti-India propaganda" and emphasised a previous denial by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who said that targeted killings in other countries were “not the government of India’s policy”.
The allegations come as the US and Canada also accused India's involvement in the botched murder plot of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an India-designated Khalistani terrorist in New York, and the death of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year.
The latest US reaction came as India had summoned a diplomat in New Delhi after a Biden official commented on the issue of the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. It staunchly said the matter is related to investigative agencies and it is an internal matter of India. Also, New Delhi suggested Washington refrain from commenting on the issues related to internal matters of any democratic country.
