Terror agenda at SCO meet

New Delhi

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the two-day Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) beginning Tuesday in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where the issue of foreign terrorist fighters will occupy centre-stage.

Though Indian attention will be focussed on Pakistan presence at the forum, of far greater importance is the synchronisation of legal instruments of the eight-member states to battle FTF who flit from one region to another, said sources.

Barring India, the other seven countries are facing the danger of FTFs from different ‘tanzeems’ spread out from Xinjiang in China to parts of Syria. The FTFs by operating in close coordination with each other had developed remarkable synergy of operations, said the sources.

Giving an example, they said a Turkmenistan national took over the anti-China East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement when its chief was killed by Pakistan at Beijing’s bidding. In Syria, the toughest fighters from the regional terrorist organisations were banded together in an elite brigade that participated in the goriest battles in Syria.

If, as is being feared, Sri Lanka blasts were also coordinated and conceived by veteran FTFs from Syria, that danger may now be knocking on Indian doors, they said. Sources said India was still evaluating whether the Sri Lankan blasts had considerable support from experienced FTF emerging from the Syria debacle.

India had joined the SCO comprising neighbours to its north, east and west in 2017 as a full member, preceded by Observer status for several years as the six original members were apprehensive of India and Pakistan importing their animosity to the organisation. More than Pakistan, which also became a full member in 2017, India was initially circumspect about enrolling in an organisation whose two principal members — China and Russia — have an inimical approach to the West.

The sources admitted that the question of Swaraj meeting her Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi is an important domestic issue for both countries. But the deliberations among member countries that neighbour two hotspots — Afghanistan and Iran — and the issue of tracing the footprints of FTFs are of greater importance, they said.

Growing threat from foreign fighters

Barring India, all other member countries are facing danger of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) from different outfits spread out from Xinjiang in China to parts of Syria
India is still evaluating whether the Lankan blasts had support from experienced FTF emerging from the Syria debacle