Home Ministers from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation nations discussed ways to strengthen police cooperation and other means to combat terrorism that has afflicted the region. The SAARC Interior Ministers' conference, attended by Home Minister P Chidambaram, also discussed proposals like maritime security and anti-piracy operations under the SAARC charter.
During the visit, apart from attending the SAARC meet, Singh is likely to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other SAARC member-countries, including Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
India on Thursday sought strengthening of SAARC monitoring desks on terrorism and drugs, underlining that illicit funds generated from narcotics and fake currency networks are being fed into supporting terror activities
More than 2,000 activists of various religious and jihadi outfits in Pakistan on Wednesday protested against the visit of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, accusing him for the unrest in Kashmir.
Home Minister P Chidambaram had briefed the Cabinet Committee on Security, where External Affairs Minister S M Krishna was present, on the interrogation report of LeT operative David Headley before visiting Pakistan for the SAARC Interior Minister's conference last month.
The four Pakistani prisoners, lodged in a Gujarat jail, will be repatriated from the Attari border on June 30, 2010 and handed over to Pakistan Rangers.
Raising the Kashmir issue at the SAARC meeting, Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday alleged that the violence being committed in Kashmir is "open terrorism".
Indian journalists, who went to cover the SAARC Home Ministers' conference in Islamabad, had to face hostile Pakistani officials.
The home minister will reach Islamabad on Wednesday and return to New Delhi the next day after attending the 7th meeting of SAARC.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday had a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik, as he said terrorism posed the most significant "existential challenge" to peace and security in South Asia.
During his terse speech, Singh launched a veiled attack on Pakistan, saying mere condemnation of terrorism and individual acts by terrorists was not enough.
Islamabad will be sealed off completely from Tuesday with army helicopters making surveillance sorties and 4,000 policemen keeping vigil.
Sing is expected to bluntly ask Pakistan to stop sponsoring acts of terror in India.
India has asked Pakistan to handover voice samples of the handlers of the Mumbai attackers, speed up the trial against 26/11 terror accused, including LeT Commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and to stop cross-border terrorism.
India will press for handing over of Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder and 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed during the visit of Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik beginning December 14.
The conference was attended by envoys of Pakistan posted at Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Afghanistan, UN New York, UN Geneva, Vienna, Brussels and Moscow among others.
"It was a formal courtesy call, nothing else," an official said.
The meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi drew mixed reactions in Pakistan, with most of the political parties accusing Sharif of failing to highlight Kashmir but the media was generally positive.
Security will be a consideration, as would protocol, but given Modi's penchant for the unconventional, it should not come as a surprise if he indeed decides to attend the ceremony in Kabul, says Ramesh Ramachandran.
Pakistan's prime minister is trying to use the unrest in Kashmir to save his government, says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, a former high commissioner to Islamabad.
'The Modi regime, after experimenting with its own versions of neighbourhood policy for 18 months, has now reached the exact stage where the Manmohan Singh government had left it in so far as our Pakistan policy is concerned,' says former senior RA&W officer Vappala Balachandran.
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