"No Looking Away": S Jaishankar On Terrorism At SCO Meet In Russia

Underscoring that there can be "no looking away" and "no whitewashing", India called upon the world to display "zero tolerance" towards terrorism in all its forms, days after 15 people were killed in a bomb blast in Delhi. 

"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. As India has demonstrated, we have the right to defend our people against terrorism and will exercise it," Foreign Minister S Jaishnakar said in his address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government meeting.

The Council of Heads of Government (CHG) is the second most important SCO mechanism, which meets annually to address major issues of trade and economic cooperation as well as the SCO annual budget. The last meeting of CHG was held in Pakistan in October 2024.

The Minister further highlighted that the SCO was founded to combat the three evils of terrorism, separatism, and extremism and "we must never forget that". 

These threats, he said, have become even more serious in the years that have passed.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. In July 2023, Iran became the new permanent member of the SCO at an India-hosted virtual summit of the grouping.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said those behind the deadly blast near Delhi's Red Fort would be tracked down "even from hell" and face the strictest punishment. 

The investigators have termed the Delhi blast a sophisticated 'white-collar' terror module, spearheaded by a group of doctors recently busted by Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Earlier, the Union Cabinet termed the Delhi blast a "heinous terror incident".

The Delhi Red Fort blast took place in an explosives-laden car, which was being driven by Dr Umar Nabi, who hailed from south Kashmir's Pulwama and was an assistant professor in the general medicine department of Al Falah University in Faridabad in Haryana.

The National Investigation Agency has arrested Jasir Bilal Wani in Srinagar, who was an "active co-conspirator" of suicide bomber Umar un Nabi, in connection with the blast.

A resident of Qazigund in Anantnag, Wani allegedly provided technical support for carrying out terror attacks by modifying drones and attempting to make rockets ahead of the deadly car bomb blast, the agency said in a statement. 

The NIA has described Umar Un Nabi, who was behind the wheel when the car exploded near the Red Fort, as a "suicide bomber".