The US said it will not interfere in the issue but encourage both sides to avoid escalation. (File)
New Delhi:
The US on Monday said it has been following reports accusing India of conducting targeted killings in Pakistan and said it encourages the two countries to find a solution through talks.
India had last week rejected the targeted killing charges, made in a report in the UK daily The Guardian citing Pakistani evidence, as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.
Asked about the allegations, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller asserted his government will not interfere in the issue but encourage both sides to avoid escalation.
#WATCH | On being asked about the United States’ position on Pakistan’s allegations against India about carrying out state killings in Pakistan, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller says, “So we have been following the media reports about this issue. We don’t have any… pic.twitter.com/vwaKjkvK0Q
— ANI (@ANI) April 9, 2024
“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,” he said.
The Guardian report claimed that the Indian intelligence agency RAW had carried out up to 20 such assassinations since the Pulwama attack of 2019.
The report, which cited evidence supplied by Pakistan and interviews with intelligence officials from both sides of the border, also claimed that Delhi “has implemented a policy of targeting those it considers hostile to India”.
It also quoted Pakistani officers who accused sleeper cells of the Indian intelligence established in the UAE of the killings. The report also cited an unnamed Indian official saying that the country had drawn inspiration from Israel’s Mossad and Russia’s KGB — intelligence agencies that have been linked to extrajudicial killings on foreign soil — and the killing of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
India trashed the charges quoting Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who had said recently that targeted killings in other countries were “not the government of India’s policy”.
The foreign ministry’s denial was also mentioned in the report by The Guardian.