Pakistan PMO Crops PM Modi Out Of SCO Group Photo, Sparks Controversy; Shehbaz Sharif Later Shares Full Image

Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s Office has caused a stir by posting a cropped picture of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in which Indian PM Narendra Modi and others were missing.

The post immediately started trending on social media and was compared to the original SCO group photo published by PM Modi.

PM Modi Missing From Pakistan’s SCO Photo

The summit took place in Bishkek on August 31 and September 1, 2026, and was attended by the heads of state of the SCO member states.

The Pakistan PMO initially published a cropped version of the leaders’ group photo, in which PM Modi, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and some others were missing, while Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stood out more prominently in the photo.

The original photo, however, showed the entire group of SCO leaders, including Modi and Shehbaz Sharif.

PM Modi also shared the full group photo on his social media account, thus highlighting the difference between the two photos.

Shehbaz Sharif Later Shares the Full Picture

• After the controversy and the online comments, Shehbaz Sharif also shared the original, uncropped photo of the SCO group.
• The Pakistan PMO also replaced the cropped photo with the full one, according to reports, after social media users started asking why several leaders had been removed from it.
• This episode has since become a topic of discussion in India-Pakistan diplomacy and has attracted much attention on social media.

PM Modi Raises Terrorism Issue at SCO Summit

The photo controversy coincided with PM Modi’s strong statements on terrorism at the SCO summit.

Speaking at the event, he called on the SCO members to take joint measures to combat terrorism and to dismantle the entire ecosystem that promotes terrorist financing, recruitment, radicalisation and safe havens.

Modi also stated that countries that resort to terrorism as a tool of policy should be subject to a firm international response and that there should be no double standards in dealing with terrorism.

India-Pakistan Tensions Again in Focus

• The photo controversy has exacerbated tensions between India and Pakistan, which are already fraught.
• Although the SCO is a multinational forum involving many powerful countries, the fact that the Pakistan PMO immediately drew attention to the removal of Modi from the photo has fueled the already tense atmosphere between the two countries.
• The fact that the full photo was later shared by both Modi and Sharif also made the episode even more controversial.