At SCO summit, Modi says countries sponsoring terrorism must be held accountable
PTIThe SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.
Bishkek: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable, as he called for a global conference to combat the menace.
Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Modi highlighted the spirit and ideals of the SCO to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
India stood for a terrorism-free society, he said.
“During my visit to Sri Lanka last Sunday, I visited the St Anthony’s church, where I witnessed the ugly face of terrorism which claims the lives of innocents anywhere,” the Prime Minister said.
To combat the menace of terrorism, countries will have to come out of their narrow purview to unite against it, Modi said in the presence of his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan.
“Countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable,” he said.
Prime Minister Modi also called on SCO member states to cooperate under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) against terrorism.
He also urged SCO leaders to organise a global conference on terrorism.
“Literature and culture provide our societies a positive activity, especially since they stop the spread of radicalisation among the youths in our society,” Modi said.
Modi arrived in the Kyrgyz capital on Thursday for the two-day SCO summit.
The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.
India had in the past blamed Pakistan for carrying out terrorist attacks in the country and asked it to stop supporting terror outfits operating from its soil.
India did not engage with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by a Pakistan-based terror group, maintaining that talks and terror did not go together.
Early this year, tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir’s Pulwama district.
Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot, who was later handed over to India.
China played a role in easing tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
