Defence minister’s comments after Guardian report are first time India has acknowledged any assassinations on foreign soil

India’s defence minister has appeared to confirm that the government carried out extrajudicial killings in neighbouring Pakistan, after a Guardian report on the alleged assassinations.

Intelligence officials from India and Pakistan who spoke to the Guardian had alleged that India’s foreign intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (Raw), had been involved in up to 20 killings of individuals in Pakistan since 2020, as part of a wider policy to target terrorists living on foreign soil.

Most of those targeted in Pakistan were convicted terrorists and militants known to be associated with Islamist militant groups that had carried out deadly attacks in India.

India has previously denied all involvement in the assassinations. But after the publication of the Guardian’s report, Rajnath Singh, the Indian defence minister, seemed to confirm that India did target terrorists hiding out in Pakistan.