Roving Periscope: Stern, India refuses to sign on China’s dotted line at SCO meet
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Russia is fighting against what it claims is Ukraine’s “terror;” China has jailed a million Uighur Muslims on similar charges. But they are not ready to condemn Pakistan for sponsoring Muslim terrorists who massacred 26 Hindu-only tourists on April 22 at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
That was why India refused to sign the joint statement after the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Defense Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, Shandong Province in China, the media reported on Thursday.
The SCO is an intergovernmental body established in 2001. India became its full member in 2017. Its other members are China, Pakistan, Russia, Belarus, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Sending a stern message to India’s neighbours, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who participated in the conference, refused to sign a joint statement because it did not mention the Pahalgam massacre in Jammu and Kashmir where Pakistan-sponsored terrorists gunned down innocent civilians.
While skipping any mention of Pahalgam, the statement, instead, mentioned Baluchistan, tacitly accusing India of creating unrest there. Pahalgam’s exclusion and Baluchistan’s inclusion were seen as done at Pakistan’s behest by China, which currently holds the SCO Chair.
India has consistently trashed Pakistan’s allegations about its involvement in Baluchistan and that Islamabad must look within and stop backing terrorist activities in India instead of making wild allegations.
“India is not satisfied with the language of the joint document. There was no mention of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. There was mention of the incidents that happened in Pakistan. So, India refused to sign the joint declaration, and there is no joint communique either,” an official was quoted as saying.
Addressing the meeting, Singh called upon the SCO members to unite to eliminate terrorism for collective safety and security. The biggest challenges faced by the region are related to peace, security and trust-deficit, with radicalisation, extremism and terrorism being the root cause of these problems.
Taking a veiled swipe at Pakistan, he said, “Peace and prosperity cannot co-exist with terrorism and proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the hands of non-state actors and terror groups. Dealing with these challenges requires decisive action. It is imperative that those who sponsor, nurture and utilise terrorism for their narrow and selfish ends must bear the consequences. Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. The SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations.”
Referring to the Pahalgam attack, he said India had exercised its right to defend itself against terrorism and pre-empt as well as deter further cross-border attacks. “During the Pahalgam terror attack, victims were shot dead after they were profiled on religious identity. The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of UN-designated terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The pattern of Pahalgam attack matches with LeT’s previous terror attacks in India. India’s zero tolerance for terrorism was demonstrated through its actions. It includes our right to defend ourselves against terrorism. We have shown that epicentres of terrorism are no longer safe and we will not hesitate to target them,” he said.
He stressed the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terror and to bring them to justice, and termed any and every act of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable. The SCO members, he said, must condemn this evil unequivocally.
His refusal to sign the joint statement reflects India’s stern stand against terror and follows the global messaging in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. New Delhi sent eight high-level parliamentary delegations to 33 countries early this month to articulate India’s stand on terror and how it plans to tackle it.
On the eve of the SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting, Singh had made India’s stance clear when he called for a “joint and consistent effort” to eliminate terrorism and extremism in the region — a move to isolate Pakistan, which is also an SCO member, courtesy China.
“We reiterate the need to hold the perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of reprehensible acts of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism accountable, and bring them to justice. Any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivation whenever, wherever and by whom-so-ever committed. SCO members must condemn this evil unequivocally.”
Singh also raised the Pahalgam attack, carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy outfit of the proscribed terror group, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), which has provided its top leadership including Saifullah Sajid Jutt, Sajjad Gul and Salim Rehmani alias Abu Saad.
On January 5, 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs designated TRF, and banned it under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967.
The TRF on April 22 massacred 26 innocent Hindu-only tourists at Pahalgam. These victims were shot dead after they were profiled based on religious identity.
Singh said the TRF is a proxy of UN-designated Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which claimed responsibility for the attack.
The pattern of the Pahalgam terror attack matched with LeT’s previous terror attacks in India. New Delhi is exercising its right to defend itself against terrorism and pre-empt as well as deter further cross-border terrorist attacks. That was why India, on May 7, successfully launched Operation Sindoor to dismantle the cross-border terrorist infrastructure, he added.
“We should seek to counter the technology used by terrorists, including drones, for cross-border smuggling of weapons and drugs,” he said.
“In our interconnected world, traditional borders are no longer the sole barriers against threats. Instead, we face an intricate web of challenges that range from transnational terrorism and cyber-attacks to hybrid warfare,” the minister said.
These threats do not respect national boundaries and demand a unified response rooted in transparency, mutual trust, and collaboration. India reaffirms its resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, he insisted.
Singh also urged the removal of the trust deficit among SCO member-countries, indicating fissures among signatory countries especially. For example, though India and China have improved their relations but, trust remains a casualty between the two neighbours as China’s arming of Pakistan was visible in Operation Sindoor. Likewise, India and Pakistan are inimical to each other, and Pakistan and Iran don’t have the best of relations, which was visible again in Israel and the USA’s attack on Tehran.
“India supports greater cooperation and mutual trust among SCO members. We should collectively aspire to fulfil the aspirations and expectations of our people as well as tackle today’s challenges. We must all be in lockstep in our endeavour in strengthening stability and security in our neighbourhood,” Singh posted on X (formerly Twitter).
