In a veiled attack on Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable and called for a global conference to combat the problem. Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgysstan, Modi highlighted the spirit and ideals of the eight-nation SCO to strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism
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 Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. "Countries sponsoring, aiding and funding terrorism must be held accountable," Modi added.
SCO, a security-driven regional grouping led by Russia and China, also comprises Tajikistan, Kyrgysstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
Modi said that during his visit to Sri Lanka on June 9, he visited the St Anthony's church “where I witnessed the ugly face of terrorism which claims the lives of innocents anywhere." He also asked the SCO member-countries to cooperate under the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) against terrorism and to organize a global conference on terrorism
India has in the past blamed Pakistan for terrorist attacks in the country and asked it to stop supporting terror outfits operating from its territory. India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on an Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab state in 2016 by a Pakistan-based terror group, maintaining that talks and terror cannot 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 India carried out an air strike on the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot in Pakistan on February 26. The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed an Indian MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured an IAF pilot who was later handed over to India.