India and Nepal will sign twin agreements this weekend to tighten the grip on terrorists, underworld and drug mafia, a senior home ministry official in Delhi said on Thursday.

Home Secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai and his Nepalese counterpart Gobinda Prasad Kusum would sign the extradition treaty and a mutual legal assistance treaty on criminal matters towards the end of two-day home secretary-level talks.

The treaties were ready for signature during the one-party rule of ousted Girija Prasad Koirala at the January 2005 meeting of the home secretaries. But the Maoists stopped any forward movement when they joined a government.

Contact between the two sides at the home secretary level resumed in November last year when Kusum led a delegation to Delhi as a follow up to the September visit by Nepal’s newly-elected prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’.

At the two-day meeting of the top officers starting Friday, the two sides will also deliberate on real time exchange of information on Maoists, coordination among border districts to tackle drugs and fake currency smugglers, a senior home ministry official said.

India will also seek action against those carrying out anti-India activities from the Himalayan nation.

The delegation will also review action taken on Indian assurance of support in training and strengthening Nepal Police and the armed police force and the setting up of a Nepal Police Academy.