Seoul: South Korean police said on Friday that they were investigating two Pakistani illegal immigrants for possible links to Taliban militants.
The two were arrested last month in the southeastern industrial city of Changwon when authorities launched a crackdown on illegal immigrants there, the National Police
Agency said.
They arrived in the southern port of Busan aboard a Pakistani merchant ship in February last year and eluded immigration authorities by climbing over fences, police said.
Since then, they had been working at a cement factory in Changwon.
"We're investigating their suspected links with the Taliban," a detective at the National Police Agency said on condition of anonymity.
He said the pair claimed they were forced to join the Taliban in late 2007 and received training for about 10 days. They said they left the militant organisation afterwards in search of jobs abroad.
"We plan to ask the Pakistani government to verify their claims," the detective said.
In a separate incident, police in February said they were investigating whether a Pakistani Muslim cleric, arrested in the southeastern city of Daegu for travelling on a fake passport, was a Taliban member.
The 31-year-old, who was imam of a mosque in Daegu, allegedly told friends he was a Taliban member but police had been unable to verify the claim, the detective added.
PTI
First Published: Friday, April 02, 2010, 13:47