Thimphu: The twice-postponed meeting of
SAARC Home Ministers to discuss ways to combat terrorism,
extremism and drug trafficking in the region will be held on
June 26 in Islamabad.
This was announced by Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah
Mehmood Qureshi after a meeting between Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh and his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the
margins of the SAARC summit here today.
Qureshi welcomed Home Minister P Chidambaram to Islamabad
on June 26 for the SAARC Interior Ministers` conference.
Better coordination among security agencies and sharing
of information to effectively combat terrorism, extremism and
drug trafficking are some of the issues that are expected to
be discussed by the SAARC Home Ministers during their meeting
in June.
The police chiefs of SAARC countries will meet ahead of
the gathering of the Home Ministers.
The Home Ministers` meeting was scheduled to be last held
in February but was deferred at the behest of Nepal, which
expressed its inability to attend it due to domestic
compulsions. It was earlier also postponed in November 2008 at
the request of Bangladesh because of Parliamentary polls in
that country.
The first such meeting was held in Dhaka in May 2006 and
then at New Delhi in October 2007.
The grouping comprises India, Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan.
PTI
