A two-day meeting of the home ministers of SAARC countries is set to begin on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
This meeting aims to find ways to strengthen anti-terrorism mechanisms.
The home ministers will discuss issues on nine broad areas at the seventh SAARC Home Ministers’ Meeting apart from reviewing the progress in implementing the decision of the sixth meeting held in Kathmandu, 2014.
The Bangladesh delegation will be led by Bangladesh High Commissioner in Islamabad Tarik Ahsan as Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal is going to ‘skip’ the meeting.
Home Ministry officials cited Kamal’s preoccupations at home for reasons behind it.
However, relations between Dhaka and Islamabad saw a diplomatic row following war crimes trials and expulsion of each other’s diplomats in a tit-for-tat reply in the past months.
The other members of the Bangladesh delegation are Deputy Home Secretary Dr AKM Mukhlesur Rahman, Director, Divisional Passport and Visa Office, Department of Passport and Immigration, Dhaka, ATM Abu Asad and Assistant Secretary, Saarc and Bimstec wing at the Foreign Ministry Md Kharul Bashar, a Foreign Ministry official told UNB.
Issues relating to SAARC terrorist offences monitoring desk, SAARC drug offences monitoring desk, establishment of secure database of SAARC terrorist offences monitoring desk, reviewing the draft MoU between SAARC and UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), mutual assistance in criminal matters, combating corruption and combating cyber crimes will come up for discussions at the meeting.
The SAARC Home Secretaries will meet Wednesday while the Home Ministers on Thursday.
Source: Ittefaq
