On Monday (8th April), the United States said that it “will not get into the middle of the situation” following allegations by Pakistan on India and has urged both countries to avoid escalation of tensions and resolve differences via dialogue.
The response by US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller came after he was asked about Washington’s stance on a recent UK media report citing Pakistani officials alleging that India carried killings of individuals associated with terrorism and extremism on Pakistani soil.
Indian officials have termed the allegations as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda.”
“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,” Matthew Miller said during a press briefing.
#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
Miller said this when he was asked about the US response to the recent report in The Guardian newspaper.
Earlier, in January too, Pakistan’s attempts to link India with the deaths of two Pakistani nationals were dismissed by the Ministry of External Affairs with official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal terming it as “peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.
Jaiswal had 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. 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. Pakistan will reap what it sows. To blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution,” he added.
Jaiswal made the remarks after Pakistan Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi claimed Islamabad had “credible evidence” of links between Indian agents and the assassination of two Pakistani nationals in Sialkot and Rawalkot–Shahid Latif and Muhammad Riaz.
As OpIndia reported earlier, in the past few months, unknown gunmen have been making headlines for selectively targeting terrorists on foreign soil, from Pakistan to Canada. So far, around 21 terrorists have been killed on foreign soil by these unknown men, of which, the maximum were eliminated in Pakistan.
Among the targets eliminated by unknown men were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists like Riyaz Ahmed, Mufti Qaiser Farooq, Khwaja Shahid alias Mia Mujahid, Akram Khan Ghazi, Mohammed Muzammil, Sajid Mir, Hanzala Adnan, LeT chief Hafiz Saeed’s son Ibrahim Kamaluddin.
In addition to LeT terrorists, the unknown men have killed many Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists including the 2016 Pathankot attack’s mastermind Shahid Latif. Alongside LeT and JeM, the unidentified assailants have also eliminated some terrorists belonging to another Pakistan-based terrorist outfit ‘Al-Badr’. A detailed list published by OpIndia of terrorists killed by unknown men in recent months can be checked here.
Notably, British propaganda newspaper The Guardian had recently published a contentious article titled ‘Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan, intelligence officials claim.’ Relying on anonymous sources, the article attempted to demonise PM Modi as a facilitator of ‘extra-territorial killings.’
Based on claims by its Pakistani sources, The Guardian accused the Modi government of neutralising a whopping 20 terrorists on Pakistani soil through its ‘sleeper cells’ in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The British newspaper alleged that India began this policy of killing terrorists on foreign soil following the deadly Pulwama terror attack of 2019, which claimed the lives of 40 Indian jawans. This propaganda piece with numerous factual errors was dismissed by the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda.”
(With inputs from ANI)
