The 2nd meeting of the High Level Group of Eminent Experts to strengthen the SAARC Anti-Terrorism Mechanism concluded here today. The two-day meeting was chaired by Director, Intelligence Bureau, Shri Dineshwar Sharma, with the participation of delegations from all SAARC member countries. During the meeting, the issues of terrorism and the measures to strengthen the SAARC anti-terrorism mechanism were discussed.Besides terrorism, the important issues discussed during the meeting included drugs trafficking, financing of terrorism and cyber crimes. The member countries shared their national experiences on various related legislations to counter terrorism. All member countries of SAARC agreed to move forward towards operationalizing the SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) and the SAARC Drugs Offences Monitoring Desk (SDOMD) in order to strengthen the combat efforts against terrorism.
All member countries agreed to cooperate on capacity building by way of sharing their expertise on the subjects related to suicide terrorism, counter radicalisation, drugs trafficking and cyber security. Other issues like corruption and money laundering were also brought up for discussions as they also contribute towards terror financing.During the meeting, there were discussions on fine-tuning the SAARC Anti-Terrorism mechanism by improving and sharing regional monitoring systems, real time exchange of information, capacity building through training of human resources and early ratification of the relevant SAARC Conventions. The meeting endorsed the importance of regional cooperation in effectively tackling the menace of terrorism.