Dutch arrest 12 on U.S. plane bound for Mumbai

Amsterdam: Dutch police arrested 12 passengers behaving suspiciously on a U.S. Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai that was forced to turn back to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday. Police arrested 12 of the 149 passengers on flight 42, which turned back to Amsterdam due to security concerns after the crew reported suspicious behaviour, officials said. Two Dutch fighter jets accompanied the plane back to Schiphol. Dutch media cited eye witnesses
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The 12 are of Indian
origin
New Delhi: Minister of State for External
Affairs Anand Sharma said here on
Thursday that India had been in touch
with its mission in Amsterdam and had
sought consular access for the passengers
detained. "We have got the list of those
12 people", he said. He confirmed that all
the 12 were of Indian, in fact Mumbai origin,
though he was not sure whether or not
they held Indian passports. Dutch prosecutors,
meanwhile, interrogated the 12 men on
Thursday, a day after they were handcuffed
and taken off the US airliner diverted to
Amsterdam, a spokesman said. He declined
to say whether the men faced terrorism
charges.
24/08/06 Times of India
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saying those arrested were not following airline security rules and were exchanging mobile phones which had made other passengers uneasy.
Dutch airport officials said the Northwest pilot decided to turn back his 273-seat DC10-30 when it was in German airspace. A Northwest spokeswoman said the passengers who were allowed to go free were staying in local hotels, adding Northwest would try the flight to Mumbai again on Thursday. The return of the Northwest plane did not lead to heightened security on Wednesday, an airport spokeswoman said. She added that it also had not affected other flights at Schiphol, Europe's third largest cargo airport and fourth biggest passenger hub.
24/08/06 Nicola Leske/Reuters India

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