IN recent years, a Hindutva-driven Indian spy agency—RAW, allegedly controlled by the Prime Minister Office, has been reported to commit transnational homicidal crimes not only in the South Asian states, including Pakistan, but also in the western countries– UK, Canada and the US. On May 3, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the province of British Columbia arrested three persons as part of an ongoing investigation into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Given the RAW’s legacy of transnational killings, the International Criminal Court(ICC),whose prime objective is to promote transitional justice, should initiate an inquiry into RAW’s alleged crimes.
According to the New York Times (May 5, 2024), ‘’Indian media’s external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, has long been accused of tapping into criminal networks to carry out operations in South Asia. Is the agency now doing similar operations in the West?’’ The Times’ raising concern is endorsed by the latest reports published in the western media-the US intercept, Canada‘s CBC and UK‘s Guardian—also validated by the concerns raised by the Five Eyes intelligence forum.
RAW role in South Asia & the West: It is charged that for several years, particularly since 2008, RAW seems to have been involved in criminal activities—vindicated by the commentaries — owned by RAW’s officials who confirmed its expansion in foreign soil. Arguably, ever since 2008, RAW has been profoundly involved in its acts– of violence replicating the same pattern of killing as that of Nijjar’s assassination–which have been well documented in various parts of the world, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. In 2018 , Sri Lankan President Sirisena accused RAW of plotting his assassination. Whereas, its involvement in the same pattern is also founded in the western states, such as the UK, Canada and the US. All of them fit RAW’s pattern. For example, in May, 2023, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a Sikh separatist leader was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Lahore, Pakistan.
As per the US online news outlet, the intercept, RAW has been planning assassinations targeting Sikh and Kashmiri activists residing in foreign countries. According to the documents, RAW is targeting individuals and religious institutions alleged to support an armed insurgency in the disputed territory of Kashmir, as well as militant Sikh activists living in Pakistan and wanted by the Indian government.
Moreover, an alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen and Sikh activist on American soil last year, was approved by the RAW’s former head while other high-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, the Washington Post reported (April 29), citing people familiar with the matter it didn’t identify. More importantly, US agencies’ findings suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser was probably aware of RAW’s plan.
The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance–an Anglo-sphere multilateral intelligence collaboration among five nations, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States–has raised concerns about the actions of India-linked agents targeting Sikh activists in the UK. During a House of Commons meeting, British Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill joined the voice of Britain’s Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, thereby questioning about the actions taken by the British Government, claiming that several British Sikhs had been placed on a hit list. Last year, June, Avtar Singh Khanda, 35, the alleged head of the Khalistan Liberation Force and aide to Amritpal Singh, mysteriously died in the UK.
Currently, Canadian police arrested people on Friday linked to the murder of a Sikh activist that sparked a major diplomatic clash between Canada and India, according to media report. Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa that an “active police operation” was underway in relation to the investigation of Nijjar’s murder. The CBC report added that authorities are also investigating possible links to three additional murders in Canada.
Latest killings in Pakistan: Though there has been a long history regarding RAW’s involvement in Pakistan, the fresh claims relate to almost 20 killings since 2020, carried out by unknown gunmen in Pakistan. UK’s leading newspaper Guardian backed those claims and allegations that Pakistan’s Government formally levelled against India. As per the Guardian report, this is the first time Indian intelligence personnel have discussed the alleged operations in Pakistan.
The killings were regularly coordinated out of the UAE, where Raw established sleeper cells that would separately arrange different parts of the operation and recruit the killers. The RAW’s sleeper cells reportedly paid millions of rupees to local criminals or poor Pakistanis to carry out the assassinations. On anonymity, the RAW officer admitted that RAW drew inspiration from Israel’s Mossad linked to extrajudicial killings on foreign soil. Still, many of RWA’s sleeper agents are active in Afghanistan whose prime task is to orchestrate terrorism in Pakistan.
The ICC role: Ostensibly, International Criminal Law (ICL) applies to transnational -cum-extrajudicial killings that are deliberate killings of individuals by state agents committed on a local or foreign soil. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over international criminal law (ICL) crimes. Thus, the International Criminal Court (ICC) must proactively initiate a propriomotu investigation of these killings —which are in violation of several international treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Geneva Conventions (1949), and the European Convention on Human Rights (1950), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
A propriomotu investigation is a preliminary examination that the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor initiates without a referral from a state party or the Security Council. In 2020, Pakistan Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, handed over a dossier on India’s terror campaign to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, urging him to prevail on New Delhi to desist from its illegal and aggressive activities.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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