Rajnath Singh talks tough, refuses to sign SCO statement skipping Pahalgam mention

New Delhi: Sending a strong message that there should be a united effort to fighting terrorism and bringing its supporters and enablers to justice, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday refused to sign a joint communique of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that skipped any mention of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Singh was in China for the SCO defence ministers' meeting that ended without a joint statement due to the strong stand taken by India on the issue of terrorism, which was objected to by Pakistan, also a member of the body.

"We understand that member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised. India wanted concerns on terrorism reflected in the document that was not acceptable to a particular country. As such the joint statement was not adopted," sources said.

ET had earlier reported that the Pahalgam terror attack had emerged as a point of contention in the runup to the summit under the Chinese presidency, with India calling for a mention of the April 22 strike in one of the documents, following which Pakistan demanded mention of the Jaffar express incident in the same document.

At the summit, Singh took a stern stand against terrorism and made the point that 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.

Singh said that dealing with these challenges requires decisive action and a united front of all responsible actors. "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," he said, addressing defence ministers, including those from China and Russia.

On the Pahalgam attack, Singh said it is clear from the pattern of the strike that it was carried out by a proxy of UN-designated terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He added India exercised its right to defend against terrorism by launching Operation Sindoor to dismantle cross-border terror infrastructure.

The minister said India's actions have demonstrated its zero tolerance for terrorism and that epicentres of terror are no longer safe as India will not hesitate to target them.

He added that the perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of acts of terrorism, including cross-border actors, need to be held accountable and brought to justice.