Joint military exercises of SCO countries special forces scheduled on Oct 3 in northwestern Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Sep 30 (Asia Free Press): India has decided to participate in the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries joint military exercises in Pakistan.
India is likely to send a three-member team to participate in the Pabbi anti-terror exercise in Pakistan’, the Economic Times reported on Thursday.
A senior military official in Pakistan also confirmed the report to Asia Free Press (AFP) and said India has agreed to participation in the exercises.
However, he didn’t shared more detail about India participation as New Delhi local media reported that only a three-member team of the National Security Division will attend the event.
The joint military exercises of SCO countries are scheduled staring on Oct 3, in the National Counter Terrorism Training Centre (NCTC) Pabbi in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan.
Special forces from Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Turkmenistan will participate in the exercises.
This will be the first time that Indian military team will arrive in Pakistan after diplomatic relations deteriorated between the two South Asian nuclear neighbour following New Delhi unilaterally scrapped the special status of the disputed valley of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
On Aug. 5, 2019 the Indian government revoked Article 370 and other related provisions from its Constitution, scrapping the country’s only Muslim-majority state with its autonomy. It was also split into two federally administered territories.
Simultaneously, it locked the region down, detained thousands of people, imposed movement restrictions and enforced a communications blackout.
Islamabad, as a result, suspended trade ties and downgraded diplomatic relations with New Delhi.
Pakistan also suspended all exports and trade relations, earlier, this ban was only limited to Israel, with which Pakistan has no diplomatic relations or trade ties.
In March this year the two neighbors agreed to honor the 2003 cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) – a de facto border that divides the picturesque Himalayan region between the two countries.
However, in recent days Indian forces again violate the agreement and fire on civilian population near along with LOC.
