‘Combat Terrorism, Separatism, and Extremism’: Jaishankar Highlights the SCO ‘Three Evils’, References Pahalgam

On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reminded his fellow counterparts at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) foreign ministers’ conclave that the organisation must persist in its efforts to combat the “three evils” for which it was established, referencing the Pahalgam attack.

“The three evils that the SCO was created to address are terrorism, separatism, and extremism. It is not surprising that these issues frequently occur in conjunction.

Recently, we in India experienced a stark illustration of this during the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025. This attack was intentionally carried out to disrupt the tourism economy of Jammu and Kashmir, while also fostering a religious divide,” he stated at the conclave taking place in Tianjin, China.

The UN Security Council, which includes some of our current members, released a statement that condemned the act in the strongest possible terms and emphasized the necessity to hold accountable the perpetrators, organizers, financiers, and sponsors of this abhorrent act of terrorism and to bring them to justice.

We have since taken those actions and will persist in doing so,” he added, possibly referring to Operation Sindoor, during which India targeted terrorist hideouts that planned and executed the Pahalgam attack, resulting in the deaths of 26 innocent individuals and compelling India to enter Pakistani territory, including the illegally occupied Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), to eliminate terror bases of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and other terrorist organizations such as Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).