ISLAMABAD, June 15: Senior Pakistani and Indian officials opened a two-day meeting here Tuesday to enhance bilateral cooperation in combating cross-border drug trafficking, officials said.

The first session focussed on reviewing the drug situation in the region, intelligence sharing and ways to control movement of chemicals used in making heroin. The Indian side was led by Narcotics Control Bureau director-general Madhur Kumar Singh while the Pakistani side was headed by Secretary for Narcotics Control Khalid Latif.

With neighbouring Afghanistan remaining a major producer of opium, chemicals are allegedly smuggled into Pakistan from India and taken to clandestine heroin producing factories operating mostly on the Afghan side of the porous border, Pakistan drug officials said.

The talks are part of Indo-Pakistan peace roadmap which began after a meeting of foreign secretaries of the two countries in Islamabad last February. The talks on nuclear issue between the two countries will be held in New Delhi later this month. -AFP/APP/PPI