IB chief to address SAARC counterparts on anti-terror ops

India is going ahead with its SAARC commitment ahead of the summit of the grouping in Islamabad, the chief of India’s Intelligence Bureau (IB) will address the representatives of anti-terror forces of other member-countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation on September 22.

• Director, Intelligence Bureau (IB), Dineshwar Sharma will be leading the Indian delegation and would discuss terror issues prevalent in the region.

India would push to make the SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk (STOMD) operational, which has been hanging fire since 1995. 

SAARC Terrorist Offences Monitoring Desk:

The desk was established in Colombo in 1995 with an aim to collate, analyse and disseminate information on terrorist offences, tactics, strategies and methods in the SAARC region. 

• The terrorism desk would come in handy to share real-time information on terror-related offences among the eight SAARC nations.

Meetings till now:

This will only be the second time in four years that the High Level Group of Eminent Experts to Strengthen the SAARC Anti-Terrorism Mechanism will meet. 

• Last time, India had hosted the meeting in Delhi in 2012 and the then IB chief Nehchal Sandhu had led the Indian side.