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Immigration authorities name arrested Pakistanis
Security unit sees 19 men as a threat
Stewart Bell
National Post
TORONTO - Immigration authorities released the names yesterday of 19 Pakistanis whose arrests have sparked fears an Islamic extremist cell may have been plotting attacks in Canada.
Canadian anti-terrorism investigators said the network displayed a suspicious pattern of behaviour that included living in "clusters," studying flight training and visiting a nuclear power plant late at night.
A national security unit composed of RCMP and immigration officials also tied the group to the theft of a gauge containing radioactive Cesium-137, considered a likely component of a so-called dirty bomb.
The Immigration and Refugee Board identified them as Jahan Zaib Sawhney, Yousaf Rasheed, Aqeel Ahmed, Muhammad Asif Aziz, Kashif Siddique, Mohammed Asif, Muhammad Waliu Siddiqui, Mohammad Akhtar, Muhammad Waheed, Sajjad Ahmad, Muhammed Imran, Fahim Kayani, Imran Younas Khan, Manzoor Qadar Joyia, Zahoor Hussain, Saif Ulla Khan, Anwar-Ur-Rehman Mohammed, Muhammed Naeem and Khurran Shazad Toor.
No further information was released. The men, who came to Canada on fraudulent visas and lived in the Toronto area, were scheduled to appear in court tomorrow and Thursday.
Police launched an investigation called Project Thread in February after an immigration officer discovered that a Canadian business school where the Pakistanis said they were studying did not exist.
The probe found the Ottawa Business College was a front that sold acceptance letters, transcripts and diplomas to foreign students, 31 of whom fraudulently used the school to enter Canada.
Most are between 18 and 33 and have connections to Pakistan's Punjab province, noted for its Sunni Muslim extremism, authorities say. They began arriving in January, 1998. The last entered Canada a week before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Rather than studying, they lived together in groups of four or five, in apartments furnished with only mattresses and computers. One apartment had airplane schematics and pictures of guns on the walls.
One of those arrested was enrolled at a commercial flight school and would overfly the Pickering nuclear power plant near Toronto. Two associates of the group were caught at the same nuclear facility at 4:15 a.m. one night, claiming they were going to the beach.
A roommate of one of the men gave a landlord a letter of reference from Global Relief Foundation, which has been sanctioned for providing financial support to al-Qaeda.
The anti-terrorism unit "determined that based upon the structure of this group, their associations and connected events, there is a reasonable suspicion that these persons pose a threat to national security."
Mohammed Syed, a Toronto lawyer who represents two of the men, accused the government of racism and said authorities are over-reacting to the Sept. 11 attacks. He called the case flimsy.
Since the 9/11 attacks, Canadian authorities have arrested several suspected members of the Osama bin Laden network, which trained thousands of radical Muslims and dispatched them around the world to become sleeper agents of terrorism.
Canadian intelligence documents relating to the arrest of one of them, Mohamed Harkat, claim that bin Laden "is trying to obtain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Furthermore, evidence demonstrates that bin Laden has made significant progress in achieving this end."
sbell@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
Security unit sees 19 men as a threat
Stewart Bell
National Post
TORONTO - Immigration authorities released the names yesterday of 19 Pakistanis whose arrests have sparked fears an Islamic extremist cell may have been plotting attacks in Canada.
Canadian anti-terrorism investigators said the network displayed a suspicious pattern of behaviour that included living in "clusters," studying flight training and visiting a nuclear power plant late at night.
A national security unit composed of RCMP and immigration officials also tied the group to the theft of a gauge containing radioactive Cesium-137, considered a likely component of a so-called dirty bomb.
The Immigration and Refugee Board identified them as Jahan Zaib Sawhney, Yousaf Rasheed, Aqeel Ahmed, Muhammad Asif Aziz, Kashif Siddique, Mohammed Asif, Muhammad Waliu Siddiqui, Mohammad Akhtar, Muhammad Waheed, Sajjad Ahmad, Muhammed Imran, Fahim Kayani, Imran Younas Khan, Manzoor Qadar Joyia, Zahoor Hussain, Saif Ulla Khan, Anwar-Ur-Rehman Mohammed, Muhammed Naeem and Khurran Shazad Toor.
No further information was released. The men, who came to Canada on fraudulent visas and lived in the Toronto area, were scheduled to appear in court tomorrow and Thursday.
Police launched an investigation called Project Thread in February after an immigration officer discovered that a Canadian business school where the Pakistanis said they were studying did not exist.
The probe found the Ottawa Business College was a front that sold acceptance letters, transcripts and diplomas to foreign students, 31 of whom fraudulently used the school to enter Canada.
Most are between 18 and 33 and have connections to Pakistan's Punjab province, noted for its Sunni Muslim extremism, authorities say. They began arriving in January, 1998. The last entered Canada a week before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Rather than studying, they lived together in groups of four or five, in apartments furnished with only mattresses and computers. One apartment had airplane schematics and pictures of guns on the walls.
One of those arrested was enrolled at a commercial flight school and would overfly the Pickering nuclear power plant near Toronto. Two associates of the group were caught at the same nuclear facility at 4:15 a.m. one night, claiming they were going to the beach.
A roommate of one of the men gave a landlord a letter of reference from Global Relief Foundation, which has been sanctioned for providing financial support to al-Qaeda.
The anti-terrorism unit "determined that based upon the structure of this group, their associations and connected events, there is a reasonable suspicion that these persons pose a threat to national security."
Mohammed Syed, a Toronto lawyer who represents two of the men, accused the government of racism and said authorities are over-reacting to the Sept. 11 attacks. He called the case flimsy.
Since the 9/11 attacks, Canadian authorities have arrested several suspected members of the Osama bin Laden network, which trained thousands of radical Muslims and dispatched them around the world to become sleeper agents of terrorism.
Canadian intelligence documents relating to the arrest of one of them, Mohamed Harkat, claim that bin Laden "is trying to obtain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Furthermore, evidence demonstrates that bin Laden has made significant progress in achieving this end."
sbell@nationalpost.com
© Copyright 2003 National Post
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