Colombo, Aug 02: Sri Lanka will sign an agreement with Pakistan later this month to exchange prisoners between the two nations, a cabinet minister said today. "The agreement is under preparation and will be finalised before the end of the month," Sri Lanka's Interior Minister John Amaratunga told the press after discussions with his Pakistani counterpart in capital Colombo. Pakistan Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday on a three-day visit, which ends tomorrow. Under the agreement, which would seek to curb criminal activities between the two countries, Sri Lanka and Pakistan would exchange prisoners jailed for various offenses, possibly including human smuggling, illegal immigration, drug smuggling and activities related to terrorism, Amaratunga said.

Transferred convicts would serve the rest of their sentence in their own countries.

The agreement is still being drafted and further details were not available, officials said.

According to the police narcotics bureau about 75 percent of illegal drugs found in Sri Lanka come from Pakistan.

Also, investigators say Sri Lanka is being used as a transit point for human smuggling. Authorities are increasingly concerned about the number of Pakistanis detained for trying to migrate to Europe illegally via the island. Bureau Report