Leaders of participating nations posted the group photograph from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek on Tuesday, featuring all the heads of state. The two-day summit was held on August 31 and September 1.
PM Modi calls for ‘strong message to countries using terrorism as instrument of policy’
However, what drew the attention of social media users was the image of the summit posted by the Pakistan Prime Minister’s office. The photograph, which was cropped on both sides, left out Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and other leaders. However, a few hours after Pakistan PMO’s post, Sharif posted the original photograph featuring all leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also posted the entire photograph of the heads of state on his official handle on X. Concluding his two-nation visit to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, PM Modi was seen off by Adylbek Kasymaliev, chairman of the cabinet ministers of Kyrgyzstan, at the airport in Bishkek.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in a group photo with heads of States at the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 1 September 2026,” the Pakistan PMO said in the post on Tuesday. PM Modi on Tuesday urged SCO to confront countries using terrorism as an instrument of state policy and reject “double standards”. He said on Tuesday that the countries need to work together to dismantle the entire “ecosystem of terrorism” and its financing. “We must dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens,” the Prime Minister said in the presence of several world leaders at the summit, of which Pakistan is a part. “Countries that use terrorism as an instrument of state policy and provide shelter and support to terrorists must receive a strong message that terrorism can never be a strategic asset,” PM Modi said. The Prime Minister said all wars and conflicts around the world should be settled through dialogue and diplomacy, adding that battlefields cannot provide a solution.
