Rajnath Singh refuses to sign SCO joint statement with no reference on Pahalgam terror attack: Report

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has reportedly refused to sign a joint statement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ Meeting in China, which had no mention of the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack. The statement condemned terror attacks in Balochistan, NDTV reported.

 

Rajnath Singh, who is in China to attend SCO nations defence ministers’ meeting, lashed out at Pakistan on Thursday and said the group should not hesitate to criticise nations harbouring terrorists. Without naming Islamabad, Singh accused the neighbouring country of backing cross-border terrorism. 

 

The defence minister charged some countries were using cross-border terrorism as "instruments of policy". "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. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations,” Singh said.

 

The defence minister stressed perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism should be held accountable. Asserting that Lashkar-e-Taiba's role in the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack, Singh said The Resistance Front, which has claimed responsibility for the attack, was just a proxy of the UN-designated terror group.

 

"The Resistance Front carried out a dastardly and heinous attack on innocent tourists at Pahalgam in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. 26 innocent civilians, including a Nepali national, were killed. Victims were shot at after they were profiled based on religious identity," the defence minister said in the meeting. 

 

Singh said Operation Sindoor reflected India’s zero tolerance for terrorism.  "In exercising its right to defend against terrorism and pre-empt as well as deter further cross-border terrorist attacks, India, May 7, successfully launched Operation Sindoor to dismantle cross-border terrorist infrastructure," he said. "We have shown that epicentres of terrorism are no longer safe and we will not hesitate to target them,” he added.

 

India