India, Pakistan for steps against terror

India and Pakistan on Tuesday struck a rare united stand to forge collective action to curb terrorism at the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) meeting in China where New Delhi also called on Islamabad to end cross border terrorism and external interference in Afghanistan.

“Many of the problems confronting our region, especially the rising tide of cross-border terrorism and extremism, require trans-national solutions,” minister of state for external affairs Gen V.K. Singh (Retd) said while speaking at the SCO heads of government meeting in central China’s Zhengzhou city.

“International terrorism has emerged as the most serious threat to our peaceful and pluralistic societies. Terrorism threatens to derail our developmental aspirations and undermine our very way of life,” Gen. Singh said as he sought close cooperation among SCO member states and zero tolerance towards terrorism to curb the menace.

“Political convenience can no longer provide an alibi for backing terrorist groups ideologically, financially or through material support. Today, the world has realised that there are no good terrorists,” he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan, whose Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was also present.

India and Pakistan are observers in the six-member SCO grouping of China, Russia and central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Both India and Pakistan are set to join as regular members of the SCO, which has formally approved their membership in the previous leaders meeting at the Russian city of Ufa. In a veiled reference to Pakistan, Gen. Singh called for an end to external interference in Afghanistan.