Pakistanis held for collecting terror funds in Thailand

Bangkok, Oct 14 (IANS/AKI) Fifteen Pakistanis suspected of collecting funds earmarked for use by terrorist organisations in their homeland have been arrested in Thailand, police said Wednesday.

Police were tipped off to the activity by a bank in the southern Yala province after the suspects tried to wire funds to a person in Pakistan whose name was on a list of people with “terrorist connections”, according to Colonel Piyawat Chalermsri, of the Thai police.

Those arrested are accused of taking part in illegal activity after the declaring in September that they were in Thailand to collect funds for disaster relief amid the devastating floods in Pakistan.

They are being detained in a police station in Yala in Thailand’s predominately Muslim south where more than 4,000 people have died in sectarian clashes over the past few years.

The southern region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until it was annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand.

–IANS/AKI