India likely to send three-member team to SCO's anti-terror exercise in Pakistan

India is likely to send a three-member team to participate in the Pabbi anti-terror exercise in Pakistan's Nowshera district from October 3 as part of the SCO RATS framework, a Times of India report said.

The decision to hold the joint exercise "Pabbi-Antiterror-2021" was announced in March this year during the 36th meeting of the Council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held in Tashkent.

Headquartered in Tashkent, RATS is a permanent organ of the SCO with the objective to promote cooperation among member states against terrorism, separatism and extremism.


The SCO is an economic and security bloc in which India and Pakistan were admitted as full members in 2017. Its founding members included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The government believes that India's participation is a sign of the importance that it attaches to the bloc in maintaining security in the Central Asian region and that it doesn't in anyway dilute India's stand on Pakistan as promoter of cross-border terrorism, the report added.

The purpose of the exercise is to identify and suppress channels of terror financinag and doesn't involve participation of troops. The report said that India is likely to be represented by officials of the National Security Council Secretariat.