Terrorism remains a serious threat, says SAARC states

India hosted the second SAARC meeting joined by Home ministers who noted the danger of terrorism which is a serious threat to the country and development in the SAARC region. It urged the Member States to strengthen institutional mechanisms with the aim to facilitate closer co–operation and more frequent interaction on the issue.

The SAARC countries gathered on Thursday and reaffirmed their commitment to the 14th SAARC Summit Declaration of moving from the declaratory to the implementation phase for facilitating economic growth, development and progress of the region.

Led under the chairmanship of Home minister Shivraj Patil, the home ministers including the Afghanistan delegate who attended the meeting for the first time after its inclusion in SAARC, expressed satisfaction at the working of institutional mechanisms and urged enhanced coordination and networking among the police forces of the SAARC countries.

The meeting noted that terrorism remains a serious threat to sustainable peace and development in the SAARC region, and called upon the Member States to strengthen institutional mechanisms with the aim to facilitate closer co–operation and more frequent interaction and regular exchange of information amongst the law enforcement agencies of the Member states to effectively combat the menace of terrorism and other related crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, arms smuggling, counterfeit currency etc.

The Ministers also agreed that the SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) and the SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk (SDOMD), located in Sri Lanka, need to be strengthened and operationally energized.

Considering the need for more frequent and higher level of interaction, the Ministers agreed that the SAARC Conference on Cooperation in Police Matters should be upgraded to the level of Police Chiefs and should be held bi–annually as against the present system of annual meetings. Pakistan has offered to host the next meeting at Islamabad in February 2008.