Combating terrorism and drug trafficking

We noticed that the idea of forming "Saarcpol", to function as a regional law enforcement agency, had generated plenty of interest among the people in this country. But it appears that no decision could be taken in this regard this time for the lack of details and it has been re-ferred to the member states for further review. The other pertinent issues that have been raised in the conference were money laundering, terrorist financing and relevant laws to tackle these menaces. We feel no forum would be better than Saarc to address these issues with due seriousness regionally and work together with the common objective of uprooting the networks.

There is no denying that the accord reached for cooperation among the Saarc countries will not only help the people in many different ways, it will at the same time make the organisation more meaningful and vibrant. The Bangladesh home minister has rightly said that it was a good beginning and that the endeavour was laudable for the fact that all the home ministers of the member countries vowed to combat the scourge of terrorism in their respective countries to ensure overall economic prosperity of South Asia.

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