'I was at my office in Dubai': Meet Dubai-based businessman Ashok Anand, who Pakistan claims is a 'RAW agent'

Earlier this year, the already-rocky relations between India and Pakistan had become tensed after Islamabad accused India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) over assassinating two high-profile Pakistani nationals. Now, one of the accused by Pakistan, Ashok Kumar Anand has emerged out of the shadows.

Talking exclusively to India Today TV, Anand, who is based out of Dubai, categorically denied any involvement with Indian intelligence agency and stated that he was going about his daily work and was taken aback when the allegations against him surfaced.

"I had no idea about this," Anand told India Today TV. “I was at my office in Dubai when I got calls from friends and relatives in India that my name’s appearing on TV. I told them I had no clue what was going on and there was no truth to the claims whatsoever.”

He, however, does maintain that the images of his photo and his passport, which were circulated by Pakistan, were his. 

"These allegations are false and unfortunate. I’m a simple businessman but now I’ve been getting threatening calls,” he said.

He also added that Pakistan's attempt to 'defame' him, have left him vulnerable, with him fearing for his life.

“I came back from Dubai because I was scared, now I’m waiting to see what will happen next. Some of my friends told me that maybe the ISI [Pak spy agency] will follow me and I would land in trouble,” he said.

Pakistan's allegations

In January, Pakistan asserted it possessed "credible evidence" linking what it termed as "Indian agents" to the assassination of two Pakistani terrorists affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Sialkot and Rawalkot last year.

Talking to the press, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi had alleged that India was involved in 'extra-judicial and extra-territorial' killings of Pakistani nationals.

Around that time, India had strongly refuted these claims. “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,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said in response.

Pakistan's allegations came on the back two high-profile deaths in 2023. On October 11, 2023, Shahid Latif, a significant associate of Masood Azhar, the leader of the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the mastermind behind the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, was fatally shot inside a mosque in Sialkot, located in Punjab province.

Earlier, on September 8, 2023, Riyaz Ahmad, also known as Abu Qasim, associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, and identified as one of the primary orchestrators of the Dhangri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on January 1, 2023, met a similar fate. He was killed by unidentified assailants while attending pre-dawn prayers at the Al-Qudus mosque in the Rawalakot area of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

In January this year, reacting to these deaths, Qazi had named Ashok Kumar Anand, along with Yogesh Kumar, as two RAW agents who were behind these killings.