Baffling as it sounds, the PMs of India and Pakistan have been threatened hours apart
Now, this is as spooky as it gets. Within hours of each other, we were confronted with two confounding news items, both related to the health and well-being of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan. The pieces of dark news sent shockwaves not only through the Indian subcontinent but across the world. Understandably, Indian security agencies went into a tizzy after the Mumbai branch of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) received an anonymous e-mail threatening to “bombard” Narendra Modi and “kill more than 20 million (Indian) people”. The email’s author, who claimed that the plan was ready and just waiting to be put into action, purportedly said that he would commit suicide so that the conspiracy could not be exposed. There’s already hush-hush talk of at least 20 sleeper cells — who are said to be in the possession of 20kg RDX — having been activated since February 28 for the ‘job’. This is not the first time the security apparatus has received mail threatening to eliminate Modi. In 2020, the NIA had received a three-word email that issued a direct threat to the PM, stating “Kill Narendra Modi”. In 2018, too, a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister in a “Rajiv Gandhi-type” attack was revealed in a letter to the Pune Police.
Meanwhile, India’s “independent foreign policy” came in for some fulsome praise by none other than the embattled Pakistan Premier who said the country is “looking for its best interests”, referring to India’s move to buy Russian crude at subsidised rates as the energy market suffers due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, hours earlier, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary said their security agencies have reported a ‘plot’ to carry out Imran’s assassination. Interestingly, this development comes just a day after the Pakistan Prime Minister said that a foreign nation had sent a message that he needs “to be removed” or Pakistan will suffer consequences, lending credence to claims that there was a conspiracy to assassinate the Pakistani Premier over his refusal to “sell the country”. A no-confidence vote against Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Government is scheduled in the National Assembly for April 3. A few leaders of both the countries have already been assassinated, so there’s an urgent need to bring to book troublemakers who plan to disrupt peace on the subcontinent.