SCO countries launch anti-terror drills targeting online terrorist propaganda

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), in which India and Pakistan are members, has launched a joint online counterterrorism exercise in China simulating a complete crackdown against online terrorist propaganda, amid rising cybersecurity challenges.

The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc in which India and Pakistan were admitted as full members in 2017. Its founding members included China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Over the years, the SCO has developed Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) which was regarded as very useful in counterterrorism operations by the member countries. RATS, has its own headquarters in Tashkent where security officials from all the eight countries are based.

The exercise launched on Thursday in the Chinese city of Xiamen has set a scenario where an international terrorist organisation spreads information of terrorism, separatism and extremism through the internet, including instant chat groups and social media platforms in SCO member states, to recruit new members, gather funds, purchase weapons and plan terror activities, resulting in intensified terror attacks and threatened regional security.

The exercise coordinated competent authorities of each SCO member state, who started investigating cases in their countries, gathering information on the terrorists' organisation, member identities and their locations, before launching a concentrated capture mission and cracking down the organisations' secret members hiding across SCO member states once and for all, state-run Global Times reported on Friday.

During the drill, cyber anti-terrorist experts sit in front of computers, deploying a variety of technical measures in eight separated "combat zones," each for one member state.

If the drill was to be real, these "combat zones" will be thousands of kilometres away, in each member state's territories, sharing information in real time, the report said.

This is the third time such an exercise has taken place. The past two editions were held in October 2015 and December 2017.

Dzhumakhon Giyosov, director of the Executive Committee of the RATS and the chief commander of the exercise, noted that while the previous two exercises focused on finding out terror propaganda on the internet, the Xiamen-2019 drill had competent authorities of member states take action.

From finding out terror propaganda to thorough investigation, then to locating and capturing those who released them, this exercise is a full-process exercise, which is a great step forward in terms of SCO's anti-terrorism cooperation, Giyosov said.

The exercise further boosted SCO member states' capabilities to jointly fighting regional terrorist organisations under the coordination of SCO RATS, and has a significant meaning in effectively dealing with the current new challenges.

RATS has become an important pillar of the SCO member states when it comes to fighting terrorism, separatism and extremism, Liu Yuejin, China's anti-terrorism commissioner with the Ministry of Public Security, said while addressing the exercise.

The exercise is a chance to test the intelligence exchange, operation coordination and technology complement mechanisms between the SCO member states, and showed SCO's determination to crackdown online terror activities and safeguard regional security and stability, Liu said.