Pakistan intelligence chief to skip SAARC meet in India

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Amidst the ongoing hostility overterror attack in Uri, Pakistan has decided not to send itsintelligence chief to India to attend a conference of topsecurity experts of SAARC countries beginning Thursday. Director General of Intelligence Bureau of Pakistan AftabSultan will not attend the SAARC meeting and that country willbe represented by an official of the Pakistan High Commission,a Home Ministry official said. The two-day conference of the High-Level Group of EminentExperts from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) countries, to be held here, is being hosted byDirector of Intelligence Bureau Dineshwar Sharma andintelligence chiefs of all other SAARC nations — Nepal,Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives besidesIndia — will participate it. Sunday’s terror attack at a military station in Uri,where 18 soldiers were killed, and the continuing unrest inKashmir Valley for more than two months after the killing ofHizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani led to deterioration ofbilateral relations between India and Pakistan. The four terrorists who attacked Uri had come fromPakistan and Islamabad had openly eulogised Wani’s acts,inviting sharp reactions from India. According to a statement issued by the Home Ministry, thesecond meeting of the High-Level Group of Eminent Experts fromSAARC countries will be held on September 22 and 23. The aim ofthe meeting is to strengthen SAARC anti-terror mechanism, itsaid. The first such meeting was held in New Delhi in February2012. The agenda of the meeting includes functioning of SAARCTerrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) and the SAARC DrugOffences Monitoring Desk (SDOMD), countering terrorism andstrengthening anti-terrorism mechanisms in SAARC, intelligencesharing and police cooperation, human resource development andrelationship building, combating corruption and cyber crimes,among others. PTI ACBRG