OFFICIALS of the Modi regime were operating under a rather warped sense of reality, playing out Bollywood fantasies without a worry about the possible ramifications of their activities. It was only last year, after the assassination of a prominent Sikh leader in Canada and a foiled attempt on another in the US, that they finally received a long-overdue reality check. They learned that no matter what India’s economic heft, no sovereign nation takes kindly to assassination attempts orchestrated by foreign governments against individuals residing on their soil. The acknowledgement by the governments in Washington and Ottawa of the involvement of high officials in the Indian government in international murder plots was also a validation of Pakistan’s long-held position that India not only finances, but actively oversees terrorist activities on foreign soil. A recent report in the Washington Post has all but confirmed Pakistan’s assertions: the publicationhas uncovered details of an international assassination programme allegedly run by India that has killed about half a dozen individuals in Pakistan since 2021.

Indeed, the Post has found reason to believe that India was emboldened to begin targeting individuals in the US and Canada based on the assassination programme it had already tested and refined in Pakistan. Its network, operated through middlemen in the UAE, was uncovered because of mistakes very similar to the ones New Delhi made in the US and Canada, including using sloppy tactics and hiring untrained hitmen. It must be pointed out that the then ISI chief had raised Pakistan’s concerns regarding India’s cross-border killing campaign to CIA director William J. Burns in 2022, well before similar plots were uncovered in the US and Canada. Now that the Indian hand is clearly visible, there must be consequences. Any impunity in this regard for New Delhi cannot be countenanced. Whatever its reasons, the fact is that the Modi regime has been murdering people and needs to be stopped.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2025