7 nabbed for 26/11 terror link

Three others — two Pakistanis and a Thai national — were held in Thailand as part of the same Operation Kampai, it said in a statement.

Officers detained the suspects in raids conducted in and around the northeastern city of Barcelona late on Tuesday.

The gang stole documents, including passports, which were sent to Thailand to be forged and then delivered to al-Qaeda-linked “terrorist groups,” in particular the Pakistan-based LeT that has been accused of plotting the Mumbai attacks, it said.

Ten militants killed at least 166 people in three days of violence in Mumbai in November, 2008. The gang also supplied the defeated Sri Lankan separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the statement said.

“In total, seven people have been arrested in Barcelona (six Pakistanis and a Nigerian), all for belonging to a cell providing documentation for terrorist organisations linked to al-Qaeda,”it said.

“The international structure was led by a Pakistani citizen living in Thailand and who has been detained, who directed the cells based in Europe, decided the features of the passports to obtain and, which once they were received in Bangkok, supplied them to different terrorist groups.

During the investigation, which began a year and a half ago, the police “have detected a number of stolen passports taken from Spain to Thailand, which were stolen almost entirely in the province of Barcelona from tourists who met the requirements stipulated by the  World Islamic Front  in order to be used by members of different terrorist cells linked to al-Qaeda,” the statement said.