The twice-postponed meeting of SAARC Home Ministers to discuss ways to combat terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking in the region is now likely to be held in Islamabad in June this year. Dates for the meeting were circulated during the deliberations of the SAARC Foreign Ministers in Thimphu on Tuesday, the grouping's Secretary General Sheel Kant Sharma told reporters.
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. 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 2009 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.
