After SCO meet, S Jaishankar calls Bilawal Bhutto Zardari 'promoter, spokesperson of terror industry'

"Victims of terrorism do not sit together with its perpetrators to discuss terrorism," Jaishankar was quoted as saying in the media after a meeting of foreign ministers of the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa.

"Bhutto Zardari came as Foreign Minister of a SCO member state; that's part of multilateral diplomacy and we don't see anything more than that," Jaishankar said.

The two foreign ministers did not hold a bilateral at the SCO meeting.

"On terrorism, Pakistan's credibility is depleting even faster than its forex reserves," Jaishankar said taking a dig at Pakistan's struggle with a huge financial crisis that has forced the country to knock from door to door for loans.

Jaishankar's comments come on a day when five Indian Army soldiers were killed in action during an operation to find terrorists hiding in a forest near Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch.

The terrorists, suspected to be Pakistanis, had ambushed an army truck last week, killing five other soldiers.

Speaking at the SCO meeting, Jaishankar called for united efforts to fight terrorism. He said taking eyes off terrorism would be bad for the SCO.

"We must not allow anybody - individual or state - to hide behind non-state actors... While the world was engaged in facing Covid and its consequences, the menace of terrorism continued unabated. Taking our eyes of this menace would be detrimental to our security interests," Jaishankar said.

Bilawal Bhutto's visit to India for the SCO-CFM meeting will mark the first time a Pakistani foreign minister has travelled to India in almost 12 years. The last Pakistani foreign minister to visit India was Hina Rabbani Khar in 2011.

India has sent formal invitations to all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) including Pakistan and China for the upcoming foreign ministers' meeting.