Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: September 5, 2005
URL: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200509050327.htm?headline=Arab,~Asian~Muslim~missionaries~questioned~in~Argentina
Muslim missionaries from the Middle
East, Pakistan, Malaysia and South Africa are being questioned in Argentina
in its terrorism probe, according to a media report.
Acting on information from Spanish
and Italian officials investigating terrorist attacks in Europe, authorities
in Argentina had questioned 26 members of Jamaat Tabligh, an Islamic missionary
group, the Washington Times quoted reports in Argentine newspapers.
European investigators suspect Jamaat
Tabligh, founded in India in the 1920s, of involvement in the March 2004
Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people, the La Ncion, an Argentine
daily, said. The missionaries entered Argentina earlier this year on a
possible recruitment mission, it added.
Felipe Sola, Governor of state of
Buenos Aires, confirmed that seven Jamaat adherents from Qatar and Egypt
were detained three months ago. Officials held the men for several hours,
retaining their passports, but ultimately releasing them because they had
not violated the law, he added.
Malaysian, Pakistani and South African
nationals were also detained in other parts of the country.
Governor Sola said national authorities
are monitoring the group, which intelligence analysts speculate are targeting
the country's 700,000-strong Muslim population because Argentine nationals
draw less suspicion at international borders. U.S. officials have raised
concerns about the group.
