The allegations are linked to the deaths of two men shot dead at mosques in separate attacks in Pakistan last year.

“Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan,” Islamabad’s caretaker foreign secretary Sajjad Qazi told a press conference in the capital yesterday.

“They recruited, financed, and supported criminals, terrorists, and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations,” he said, adding several men had been arrested.

However, the government did not provide details of the documentary, financial and forensic evidence it said it possesses and gave no further information on the subsequent trials of those arrested.

The Indian foreign ministry dismissed Pakistan’s allegations as “false and malicious anti-India propaganda” late yesterday.

“As the world knows, Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime, and illegal transnational activities,” it said in a statement.

“India and many other countries have publicly warned Pakistan cautioning that it would be consumed by its own culture of terror and violence.”

Islamabad’s claims come after the US and Canada last year accused Indian agents of links to assassination attempts in their territory.

Arch-rivals Pakistan and India have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned in 1947, and regularly trade allegations of espionage and malfeasance.