A meeting of top anti-narcotics officials of India and Pakistan, scheduled to begin tomorrow in Islamabad, has been called off following a directive of the Home Ministry.
Sources said that the Home Ministry has cancelled the meeting notwithstanding the go-ahead for it from the External Affairs Ministry.
"Home Ministry has cancelled the meeting ostensibly because of the cancellation of the Foreign Secretary-level talks as well as tension recently along the Line of Control," a source said.
The meeting has now been deferred, a Home Ministry spokesperson said while refusing further comment.
The cancellation order has been issued by Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry, Sneh Lata Kumar, who looks after the affairs of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
The nine-member team was today supposed to leave for Pakistan for the two-day meeting. It had got the Home Ministry directive asking them not to travel only on Friday.
Officials drawn from the narcotics and drug enforcement departments of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir were to be part of the delegation along with those representing BSF and the Customs Department.
The meeting is an annual affair between the two countries.
