Indian and Pakistani armed forces began a week-long anti-terror drill under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). A 200-member Indian contingent is participating in the exercise

New Delhi: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Exercise began on Friday, bringing Indian and Pakistani militaries to participate for the first time in a joint exercise under the anti-terror setting. India and Pakistan began a joint exercise under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The anti-terror drill, which began at Chelyabinsk in Russia will continue till August 29. The Indian contingent is expected to return by August 30. The opening ceremony of the event took place on Friday after national flags of the participating countries were hoisted by the member nations.

As reported earlier, a 200-member contingent of the Indian Armed forces, including infantrymen, supporting arms and a team of the Indian Air Force are participating in the exercise. Indian contingent has 167 Indian Army personnel including four women officers and 33 personnel from the Indian Air Force. The Pakistani contingent, on the other hand, consists of 110 members, while the strength of the Chinese contingent is of 748 personnel.

Commander Col Gen Alexander Lapin, the Exercise Chief, who exhorted the participating troops to execute all tasks allotted to them in a professional manner- news agency ANI reported. The exercise will include zeroing and firing by tanks, infantry combat vehicle BMPs and small arms, practice jump by airborne troops and hold sports competitions with a total of six sports activities planned during the period. It may be noted that a total of 3000 troops from all eight SCO member states are participating in the exercise. 

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, which was initially created in China with five more members namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were given the status of full members of SOC in 2017.

The SCO is aimed at strengthening mutual trust and partnership among the member states, promoting effective cooperation in trade, research, economy, politics, technology, culture, education, energy, tourism among other things.