'Blaming others for own misdeeds...', India reacts to Pakistan's allegations over killing of two citizens

Reacting to Pakistan’s claim that Islamabad had “credible evidence” linking “Indian agents” to the killings of two Pakistani citizens on Pakistani soil, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said, “Blaming others for own misdeeds can neither be justification nor solution.”

Replaying to media queries regarding remarks made by Pakistan Foreign Secretary, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We have seen media reports regarding certain remarks by Pakistan Foreign Secretary. It is Pakistan's latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda.”

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“As the world knows, Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime, and illegal transnational activities. India and many other countries have publicly warned Pakistan cautioning that it would be consumed by its own culture of terror and violence,” Jaiswal said.

“Pakistan will reap what it sows,” the MEA spokesperson added.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi accused India of carrying out “extra-territorial and extra-judicial killings” inside Pakistan and claimed that Islamabad had “credible evidence” of links between what it called "Indian agents" and the assassination of two Pakistani terrorists associated with the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Sialkot and Rawalkot last year.

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“We have documentary, financial and forensic evidence of the involvement of the two Indian agents who masterminded these assassinations,” news agency AP quoted Pakistan’s foreign secretary as saying.

“Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan. They recruited, financed, and supported criminals, terrorists, and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations,” Qazi said.

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Qazi also alleged that the potential assassins were recruited using social media, talent spotters, and fake Daesh accounts.

“The assassination of Pakistani nationals on Pakistani soil was a violation of the country's sovereignty and a breach of the UN Charter. “This violation of Pakistan's sovereignty by India is completely unacceptable,” he added.

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Shahid Latif, a key aide of Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar and the mastermind of the 2016 attack on Pathankot Air Force base, was gunned down in a mosque in Sialkot in Punjab province on October 11, 2023.

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On September 8, 2023, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, affiliated to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who was one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on January 1, 2023 was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside the Al-Qudus mosque during pre-dawn prayers in the Rawalakot area in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

The allegations come months after both the United States and Canada accused Indian agents of links to assassination attempts on their soil.