Jaishankar asserts India’s right to defend itself against terror

India has the right to defend its people against terrorism and it will exercise it, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday at the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Moscow, adding that New Delhi had demonstrated its resolve to fight terror, a likely reference to Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May after the Pahalgam terror strike.

- Rahul Singh

External affairs minister S Jaishankar with Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin at an SCO meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday

(AP)

The threat, he said, had become more serious over the years, calling for zero tolerance against the scourge.

“We must never forget that the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) was founded to combat the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. These threats have become even more serious in years that have passed. It is imperative that the world display zero tolerance towards terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. There can be no justification, no looking away, and no whitewashing; he said.

The meeting comes around six months after India launched Operation Sindoor, which marked New Delhi's direct military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack which claimed 26 lives.

India launched the operation in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) before the May 10 ceasefire.