Even as External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar stressed on the need to collective effort to stop terrorism in all its forms at the ongoing Shanghai Organisation Corporation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers meet in Goa, two Indian army soldiers from elite 9 Para SF have been killed and four soldiers including an officer are injured in a blast.
The blast was triggered by terrorists during encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri sector which left many injured. According to an official statement of the Indian Army details are in the process of being ascertained. Despite bad weather intelligence-based operations are being carried out to flush out a group of terrorists involved in an ambush on an army truck, intelligence-based operations in the area are being carried out.
The ambush took place in the Tota Gali area of Bhata Dhurian in the Jammu region when during a search operation contact was established with a group of terrorists deep inside the thick forests in the area who had triggered an explosive device in retaliation. In this attack two soldiers were killed who belonged to the Special Forces and four more soldiers including an officer were injured.
About the intelligence based Operation
The Indian Army statement specifies that they received specific information about the presence of terrorists in the Kandi Forest in Rajauri Sector. Thereafter on May 3, a joint operation was launched and on May 5 (Friday) around 7.30 am a contact was established by the search team with the group of terrorists who were in a cave deep inside a thickly vegetated with rocky and steep cliffs.
Additional teams have been directed to the site of the encounter and those injured have been evacuated to the Command Hospital, Udhampur.
Reports in the public domain indicate that the terrorists are trapped in the thick jungles and there are possibilities of casualties in that group.
Meanwhile … in Goa
At the CFM Jaishankar in his opening remarks urged the member states to make a collective effort to stop terrorism in all forms, saying there can be no justification for terrorism.
In a veiled swipe at Pakistan, he said that India firmly believes that there can be no justification for terrorism. “It must be stopped in all its forms, including cross-border terror.”
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, China’s Qin Gang and Russia’s Sergey Lavrov were present when the remarks on cross border terrorism were made.
The Indian minister said that the channel of finances for terrorist activities should be seized and blocked without distinction, adding that while the world was fighting COVID-19 pandemic, the menace of terrorism continued unabated.
Pakistan FM Bilawal Bhutto in his address at the CFM meet urged the member countries to collectively eradicate the menace of terrorism. Adding, “Let’s not get caught up in weaponizing terrorism for diplomatic point scoring.”
Bhutto also reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to multilateralism for maintaining international peace and harmony.
Present at today’s meeting were Foreign Ministers of Russia, China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan.
In his address Jaishankar also sought the support of the members for India’s demand to make English the third official language of SCO. The group members also talked about reforms and modernization of SCO.
Afghanistan
Also, in his address Jaishankar talked about the situation in Afghanistan which remains at centre of India’s attention and told the members of the bloc that efforts should be directed towards welfare of Afghan people.
And, India attaches importance to development of multifaceted cooperation in SCO and promoting peace and stability.
So far
India has hosted 100 meetings and events including ministerial-level meets under its presidency of SCO.