India has suggested the mention of a recent Pahalgam terror attack in one of the main documents to be presented at the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, hosted under China's chairmanship, as per media sources.
Pakistan has asked in response to this step that the same document also mention the hijacking of the Jaffar Express and a recent bus attack by Baloch militants.
Reports said New Delhi has demanded the SCO's official summit statement must clearly denounce the Pahalgam massacre of April 22, when 26 holidaymakers were brutally ambushed and killed by heavily armed militants belonging to The Resistance Front, a known Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliate.
Sources close to the issue have indicated that consultations are under way between member countries on whether the Indian bid will be included. In the view of some analysts, leaving out the mention might serve to undermine the credibility of the SCO's counter-terrorism agenda.
Established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai, the SCO is a permanent intergovernmental organization committed to the promotion of regional cooperation in political, security, and economic matters. Its members are currently India, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus.
The organization also runs the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), a permanent institution headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. RATS is the hub for collective counteraction against terrorism, extremism, and separatism in the member states.
Considering the pivotal role played by RATS in the fight against terrorism, India's insistence on a denunciation of the April 22 Pahalgam attack is seen as aligned with the SCO's larger objectives, according to experts.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be visiting China later this month for the SCO Defence Ministers' conference. It will be preceded by the SCO National Security Advisers' (NSA) conference, again increasing diplomatic interactions among the member countries.
In another development, India recently stepped away from the joint statement of the SCO on the Israel-Iran conflict. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) made it clear that India was not a party to the deliberations that resulted in the issuance of such a statement.
"The SCO has made a statement on the recent Israel-Iran developments. India's own view on the subject had been enunciated by us on June 13, 2025, and is the same. We call for avenues of dialogue and diplomacy to be used in order to move towards de-escalation, and it is necessary that the international community make efforts in this direction," the MEA stated in an official release.
Besides, the MEA also revealed that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had called his Iranian counterpart to discuss global concerns regarding the worsening scenario and demanded restraint.
"The External Affairs Minister, also, had a meeting with his Iranian counterpart yesterday regarding this issue and communicated the international community's deep concern regarding the developments. He also called for avoiding any escalatory measures and an early return to diplomacy," the statement further said.
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