London: Ten Pakistani students, whose arrest on charges of planning bombings in Manchester triggered a diplomatic spat early this year, had been granted permission by the Home Office to work as security guards in Britain.
The Pakistani students, who were never charged for
lack of evidence, were arrested by MI5 in multiple raids on
charges of planning to blow up a shopping centre and a
nightclub in Manchester, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
Police believed they had conducted "hostile
reconnaissance" of the Arndale and Trafford shopping centres
and the Birdcage nightclub in the industrial city Manchester.
It has now emerged that in the months before the
alleged plot, the men were given licences to work as security
guards by the Security Industry Authority, a Home Office body
that regulates the private security industry, the paper said.
The 10 had passed a vetting programme designed to bar
criminals and undesirables from taking up sensitive security
posts protecting airports, ports and Whitehall buildings from
terrorist attack.
When arrested, two of the students were working for a
cargo firm which had access to secure areas at Manchester
airport. Foreign migrants do not need to have their
applications counter-signed by a British referee.
PTI
