New York, Aug 24: The arrest of 19 Pakistanis in Canada on immigration charges, has been officially linked to terrorism, according to a document filed at a Toronto court.
A document filed at a detention hearing this week for possible ties to terrorism cited a "pattern of fraudulent document use to obtain or maintain immigrant status" by the men, ages 18 to 33, the New York Times reported from Toronto.
The men were detained on August 14 after an investigation found that one of them was taking flying lessons at a school near an Ontario nuclear power plant.
Officials, the paper said, disclose little about the investigation, but the men appeared interested in explosives and in the pickering nuclear generating station outside Toronto, according to the document.
Policemen had seen two of them walking outside the gates of the pickering plant at 0415 hrs local time on a day in April 2002. The men said they wanted to take a walk on a beach.



One of the detained men was training to fly at a school whose flight paths cross over the pickering plant, the document said. It said the men were in contact with unidentified sources who "have access to nuclear gauges" that contain small amounts of the isotope cesium 137, which can be used for making crude nuclear explosives.



"Based upon the structure of this group, their associations and connected events, there is a reasonable suspicion that these persons pose a threat to national security," the document said.


Bureau Report