ISLAMABAD, Jan 1 (Alliance News): A report by The Washington Post on Tuesday revealed that India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), is allegedly behind a covert assassination programme targeting several individuals in Pakistan, beginning in 2021.
The report claims that the targeted killings bear similarities to previous RAW operations aimed at eliminating Khalistan separatists in the United States and Canada.
Dubai-based businessmen were allegedly enlisted by RAW as intermediaries to facilitate the operations, including surveillance, organizing the assassinations, and arranging payments through informal financial networks like hawala.
One of the most high-profile alleged killings was of Zahoor Mistry, an individual involved in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999.
Unidentified Pakistani officials told The Washington Post that a woman named Tanaz Ansari, believed to be an Indian intelligence agent, was involved in tracking and orchestrating Mistry’s murder, hiring several people across various regions to carry out the task and fund it.
Furthermore, the report claimed that the woman was also implicated in the killing of Syed Khalid Raza, a former activist in Kashmir.
The alleged mastermind of the 2016 Pathankot attack, Shahid Latif, was shot in Pakistan’s Sialkot district in October 2023 by assailants, one of whom, Muhammad Umair, reportedly admitted to being sent from Dubai to execute the killing on behalf of Indian intelligence.
In response to the allegations, India’s foreign ministry declined to comment. The Indian government, through past statements, has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in specific assassinations but stressed that such killings were not part of official policy.
These latest accusations come eight months after RAW was accused in the alleged assassinations of Khalistan separatist leaders, including Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A similar report by The Guardian earlier revealed that the Modi-led Indian government had allegedly ordered killings in Pakistan, further straining the already tense relationship between the two nuclear powers.
