The SAARC members on Thursday decided to strengthen cooperation in combating terror and crime, with a meeting of home ministers, chaired by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, agreeing to a bi-annual meeting of police chiefs. The chiefs will now meet twice a year, instead of the current once-a-year schedule. The next meeting of police chiefs will be held in Islamabad in February next year. The countries also decided to expedite finalisation of the proposed SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance on Criminal Matters. Legal advisers from the member countries will meet for a second time in Colombo in April, 2008 to finalise the draft proposed by India at an earlier stage. The draft convention calls for cooperation in making people, detained in one country, available for investigation in another country. A similar process has been mooted for locating and identifying people involved in terrorism. India has also offered to help in strengthening the SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk and the SAARC Drug Offences Monitoring Desk based in Sri Lanka. The meeting also reviewed the implementation of the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and Additional Protocol and the SAARC Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The ministers also emphasised their commitment made at the 14th SAARC Summit held here in April of moving from the declaration phase to the implementation phase.The SAARC Visa Scheme was also discussed and it was agreed to provide a special tenure-linked dispensation to the officials of the SAARC Secretariat. Member countries also agreed that retired Judges of Supreme Court and serving High Court Judges should be included in the list of Entitled Persons. The three-day meet saw a conference on cooperation in police matters, a meeting of home/interior secretaries and also agreement on the need to combat terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, arms smuggling and counterfeit currency.
