|
Air scare: All 12 detained Indians freed
An edgy Dutch security apparatus, after creating the impression of a foiled terror plot when it arrested 12 Indian on Wednesday following the return of a Northwest Airlines flight to Amsterdam, late on Thursday night brought the curtains down on the high-voltage drama by releasing all of them.The 12 held were all Muslims, most of them Bohras from Mumbai. Their irrational exuberance during takeoff when they reportedly talked on mobile phones and exchanged them around seems to have aroused the suspicion of the air marshals. The moral of the story: there is currently zero tolerance for any out-of-line behaviour in the air. Questions are also being raised about security profiling on the basis of race and religion. It appears the alarm was triggerred also by the fact that some among the detained dozen sported beards, wore salwar-kameez and spoke in Urdu. In days to come, this high-profile episode is certain to generate a debate on questionable biases in terror-combat operations. Earlier on Thursday in Amsterdam, a spokeswoman for the national anti-terrorism office, speaking for Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, said, "So far there are no signs this was a terrorist threat". In New Delhi, minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma told reporters that "the information we received says that they have been arrested for flight disruption and not terrorist acts". From their names, a number of the 12 detained seem to be Bohra Muslims of Mumbai. Posted by: john 2006-08-24 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=163962 |