• FO said Indian involvement killing in Canada shows network had now gone global.
• Pakistan remained a target of targeted killings and espionage by RAW.
• India has a habit of implicating Pakistan in anything under its watch

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Wednesday said the news of Indian involvement in an extrajudicial killing in Canada shows that the country’s “network of extra-territorial killings has now gone global”.

“India’s assassination of a Canadian national on Canadian soil is a clear violation of international law and the UN principle of state sovereignty,” the FO spokesperson said at a weekly press briefing.

The spokesperson was responding to a question on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement that he had “credible evidence” linking India to Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s murder must be based on “some facts.”

Nijjar was shot dead in his vehicle by two masked gunmen in the busy car park of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in British Columbia, a Canadian province.

The spokesperson said the incident was a “reckless and irresponsible act” that called into question India’s reliability as a credible international partner and its claims for enhanced global responsibilities.

About India’s previous record, she said for decades, the Indian intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) had been actively involved in abductions and assassinations in South Asia.

She said Pakistan remained a target of a series of targeted killings and espionage by RAW. She recalled that in December 2022, Pakistan released a comprehensive dossier providing concrete and irrefutable evidence of India’s involvement in the Lahore attack of June 2021. The attack was planned and executed by Indian intelligence.

In 2016, she said a high-ranking Indian military officer Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav confessed his involvement in directing, financing, and executing terror and sabotage in Pakistan.

She said Pakistan had been stating time and again that India has the “habit of implicating Pakistan in anything that happens under its watch” especially in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Regarding the address of Turkiye’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the UN General Assembly session, where he supported the Kashmir cause and proposed talks between Pakistan and India, she termed Turkiye as Pakistan’s “old friend and brother”.

“Turkiye always has had a principle stance on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute (J&K) and they are equally pained with the plight of Kashmiri people,” she said.

The spokesperson said Pakistan is ready to hold talks with India on all disputes, especially the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir. “With regard to third-party mediation, Pakistan has always said that we would welcome it on the J&K issue on the basis of the UN Security Council resolutions and in accordance with the principles of international law,” she said.

She said Pakistan would continue to raise India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan and its suppression of the people of IIOJK. She said human rights violations continue unabated in the restive region.

During the first eight months of this year, the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK killed 68 Kashmiris, including women and children with 13 custodial killings. Also, 2,900 persons including political activists, businesspeople, women, and youth were arbitrarily arrested.

Asked about Pakistan’s position on the escalation in Nagorno Karabakh issue, the spokesperson said Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, considering Karabakh its sovereign territory.

On the PM’s visit to New York to participate in the UNGA, she said a small delegation accompanied him including the foreign minister, foreign secretary, and some senior officials.

In his upcoming address on September 22, she said the prime minister would outline Pakistan’s perspective on a range of regional and global issues, including the longstanding unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute on the UN Agenda.

“He will also share the measures taken by Pakistan to consolidate economic recovery and efforts to mobilize domestic and external investments,” she said.

To a question on the meetings of the US ambassador to senior officials of the Election Commission and police and also his visit to Gwadar, she said the foreign ambassadors in Pakistan are “at liberty to meet the government officials and public figures just as our ambassadors do” in their countries of postings.

On ties with Russia following a recent news report of Intercept, she said both countries had a very robust dialogue and a number of visits and exchanges had taken place.

“We continue to discuss matters of mutual interest and we believe that Russia understands that Pakistan has taken a neutral stance on the dispute between Russia and Ukraine,” she said.

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