‘Will enter Pakistan to kill terrorists,’ says Rajnath Singh on claims of extra-territorial killings

Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh said in an interview to News18 on Friday that the Indian government would not hesitate to carry out extra-territorial killings of terrorists “who flee to Pakistan”.

The minister was responding to a question about a report in The Guardian a day earlier, alleging that the Indian government, over four years, assassinated at least 20 individuals in Pakistan as part of a strategy to eliminate terrorists living on foreign soil.

Documentation seen by The Guardian allegedly ties India’s Research and Analysis Wing to the killings that are said to have been orchestrated by sleeper-cells based in the United Arab Emirates. Pakistani officials have accused these cells of paying millions of rupees to local criminals or poor Pakistanis to carry out the assassinations.

“If any terrorist tries to disturb the peace in Bharat, or tries to carry out terror activities in Bharat, we will respond fittingly,” Singh said. “If any terrorist flees to Pakistan, we will enter their house and kill them.”

The Indian foreign intelligence agency allegedly changed its strategy to assassinate potential threats after the February 2019 Pulwama attack in Kashmir, which was carried out by the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The Ministry of External Affairs declined to provide The Hindu with a comment on whether the defence minister’s statement is at odds with the Centre’s position that the...

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