Terror links: Suspects in Thailand arrested while fleeing across border

Suspects were part of criminal networks tied to Mumbai attacks and Madrid train bombings.

BANGKOK: Two Pakistanis and a Thai woman arrested on suspicion of making fake passports for al Qaeda-linked groups were part of criminal networks tied to “many terrorist attacks”, Thai police said on Thursday.

The arrests formed part of an international operation to stamp out a huge cell that has been linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Pakistanis Muhammad Athar Butt, 39, and Zeeshan Ehsan Butt, 29, and Thai national Sirikanlaya Kijbumrung, 25, were arrested as they attempted to flee into Laos.

“They are suspected of being part of a transnational criminal group, linked with proscribed organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and involved with many terrorist attacks in Spain and European Union countries,” a Thai police statement said.

The Thai raids were coordinated with Spanish police, who arrested six Pakistanis and a Nigerian in raids in and around Barcelona, which has a large Pakistani community, late on Tuesday. Thai officials working alongside authorities in Spain, found that criminal networks in South Asia, had used Thailand as a base for document forgery. “These are linked with terrorist groups, credit fraud, human trafficking and arms traders, which use those forged passports to enter other countries,” the statement said.

Police seized forged passports, immigration documents, fake rubber stamps, computers, mobile phones, passport photos, UK driving licences and other counterfeiting equipment.

The three suspects were charged with passport and document forgery, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Operation Kampai “neutralised a vast cell that helped provide passports for al Qaeda”, according to a statement by the Spanish interior ministry on Wednesday. The gang stole documents, including passports, which were sent to Thailand to be forged and then delivered to al Qaeda-linked “terrorist groups.” A key customer was Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group which has been accused of plotting the Mumbai attacks, the ministry said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2010.