Italy orders arrest of 18 suspected Pakistani terrorists

Italian authorities on Friday in Rome issued warrants to arrest 18 suspected members of a Pakistani terrorist organisation.

The police said the alleged terrorist network, which had its operational base in Sardinia, planned several attacks and sabotage actions in Pakistan, including the planting of a car bomb at a market for women on Oct. 28, 2009, in which 137 died.

Police said the arrest was imperative because the suspects had links to the Taliban and al Qaida, and that two of them protected Osama bin Laden while in hiding.

The police said another suspect was an imam who collected money from Pakistani and Afghan communities in Italy to finance terrorism.

The police also said the organisation smuggled migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The police said their activities also extended to supplying migrants with fake work contracts or forged documents, attesting their status as victims of religious or ethnic persecutions, and helped them move on to northern Europe.