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| Sunday, 9 October 2005 |
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World |  |
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SAARC summit
to go ahead dispite bombs
DHAKA, (Reuters) Bangladesh has ordered a further tightening of airport and border security following a spate of bomb attacks to ensure that a south Asian summit in Dhaka next month is held safely, security officials said on Tuesday. "We are taking all measures to ensure the safe arrival, stay and return of the south Asian leaders and other delegates attending the November 12-13 summit," said one official. "Movement across the borders (with India and Myanmar) will be monitored more closely so that trouble makers, if any, won't be able to flee easily," said the official, who asked not to be identified. Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said on Monday the summit would be held on schedule. The summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - has been twice postponed since last December, once following the Indian Ocean tsunami and again because Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declined to attend over security concerns. Dhaka officials said all SAARC leaders had confirmed they would attend the November summit, despite a wave of countrywide bombings blamed on Islamist militants seeking to turn Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy, into an Islamic state. Some 500 small bombs exploded simultaneously across the country on Aug.
17, killing two people and wounding about 100. |
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