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Europe
Cyprus arrests Pakistani students
2004-07-09
Ten Pakistani yoots youths have been arrested in Cyprus on national security grounds, the country’s interior minister said. The students were arrested during a police swoop in Larnaca, on the south-east coast, on Wednesday. Lawyers said one of the Pakistanis had already been deported, with other orders pending. The director of the college they were attending said they were excellent students and that their parents were "furious" at the arrests. Cypriot Interior Minister Andreas Christou said: "I can confirm that instructions were given for their arrest for security reasons, nothing more."

Government spokesman, Kypros Chrysostomides, said: "Police worked on information received and took those measures dictated by the circumstances of top security and terrorism." He said the "letter of the law" had been followed in the arrests. The local Politis newspaper reported that the students were detained after overseas sources told Cypriot authorities the students were suspected of belonging to al-Qaeda. The Pakistanis were attending the Intercollege school - its director, Nicos Nicolaou, said they were "excellent students". A British friend of one of the arrested students told the AFP news agency the Pakistanis did not know each other well. "Nobody understands why they are being held because of links to terrorism," the friend said. In Cyprus, deportations can be carried out without court appearances.
Posted by:Dan Darling

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