Family: Environmentalist on round-the-world trip arrested in India on terror-related charges

Eco-activist arrested in India on terror charges

LONDON — A London-based environmental campaigner traveling around the world in a biofuel-driven bus has been arrested in India on terrorism-related charges, his family and Italian officials said Sunday.

The sister of Andy Pag says he was detained Monday in the western state of Rajasthan for having an unlicensed satellite phone. He was ordered held for 14 days while police investigate whether he is a threat to national security.

Francesca Pagnacco said her brother was “completely and utterly innocent of anything even remotely connected to terrorism.”

The Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Pag, an Italian-British national whose full name is Andrea Pagnacco, had been arrested under India’s anti-terrorism laws and was being held pending trial in Rajasthan’s Ajmer prison.

The ministry said the Italian embassy in India had been in contact with Pag.

Pag, 35, left London in September in a bus converted to run on vegetable oil and was chronicling his journey in a blog.

He has previously driven to Timbuktu in a chocolate-fueled truck and organized a London-to-Athens rally for biofuel vehicles called Grease to Greece.

Offices in Rajasthan were closed Sunday and there was no immediate response to a request for comment.

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