ISLAMABAD: The meeting of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) interior ministers will kick off in Islamabad today with regional affairs, terrorism, prevention of drugs and human trafficking on its agenda.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will open the two-day Saarc interior ministers meeting at a local five star hotel which is expected to be attended by interior ministers from all Saarc states except for Bangladesh. Dhaka, however, will be represented by senior diplomats and officials.
Indian home minister Rajnath Singh will also attend the conference. He, however, will not hold a one-on-one meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
"There is no such proposal (for a bilateral meeting)," a spokesman for the Indian foreign ministry, Vikas Swarup, had said while confirming Singh's visit to Islamabad a few days ago.
The meeting of interior ministers comes as protests continue in India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) amid killing of over 50 innocent Kashmiri youth at the hands of state forces.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan responded to the statement by New Delhi saying that he too is not 'anxious' to hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart.
The Saarc group includes Pakistan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The platform aims to boost ties and cooperation between member states, yet the Pak-India tension and especially the neighboring arch-rival's traditional stubbornness on Kashmir issue is deemed by many as an impediment to it.
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