A first: IB Director goes to Pakistan

It may have been a small step across Wagah for Director Intelligence Bureau K P Singh but it signifies a significant stride in India-Pakista...

It may have been a small step across Wagah for Director Intelligence Bureau K P Singh but it signifies a significant stride in India-Pakistan relations symbolising the changing mood in bilateral ties. For, this is the first time the head of India’s premier domestic intelligence agency has officially travelled to Islamabad.

The occasion, the Fourth SAARC Conference on Cooperation in Police Matters (April 20-21), and Singh was the head of the Indian delegation which returned yesterday. The conference proved to be an effective platform for a rare interaction between Indian and Pakistani police officials.

North Block, for its part, says that Singh went to Pakistan as he heads the Intelligence Bureau, which coordinates with all state police units. In the police establishment, Intelligence Bureau Chief is considered to the seniormost police officer in the country. Officials, however, stress that Singh had no bilateral interaction with his Pakistani counterparts but was in Islamabad purely in the SAARC context.

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Besides Singh, the delegation included Director General of Punjab Police A A Siddiqui, Additional Director General of Rajasthan Police A S Gill, Additional Director General of the Border Security Force A K Mitra and Director (Internal Security) Mukesh Mittal.

The Pakistan side was headed by the Director General of the country’s Federal Investigation Agency Syed Mohib Asad. Pakistan’s Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani was also part of the inaugural session while the country’s Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat addressed the concluding session.

Broadly, sources said, discussions revolved around common policing issues in the seven countries with specific focus on sharing of information between member countries on illegal migrants or infiltrators, missing persons, human and drug trafficking, smuggling and cattle theft particularly in case of India and Bangladesh.

It was also felt that the seven member-states should also cooperate more effectively on the list of most wanted criminals in each country and that information on such persons should be shared on a regular basis given the growing threat of terrorism in the region. The meet took place after a gap of one year with the last SAARC conference on policing matters held at Colombo in 2002. Official sources said the Islamabad meeting was, however, held out the promise of sustained cooperation, particularly as it was organised in the backdrop of improving India-Pakistan ties.

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That New Delhi was keen to play an active role in the conference is evident from the fact that it sent the largest delegation among all the other countries.