Some clerics disobey ITMD, provide information about madrassas
PARIS: The Central Directorate of General Information (DCRG) has warned that several hundred Pakistanis in France have terrorist links and recommended surveillance of the community, said French newspaper Le Figaro newspaper on Monday.
According to the newspaper, the report said that while most Pakistanis aspire to integrate into French society, several hundred “have chosen the path of terrorism and Salafism to express their hatred of the West.” An Interior Ministry official confirmed the existence of the report, but cautioned that it was “a very technical study on the Pakistani community in France.” He said it was not aimed at lecturing Britain on what might happen on its own soil.
The report quoted by Le Figaro said that people plotting an attack could count on the “support of jihadists within the large Pakistani community in Britain” and warned: “France is not immune from this kind of violent group.”
The DCRG report, a French intelligence service, said that radical Pakistani activists from southern Asia or Britain had visited France more frequently in recent years. It said that militant groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba had set up outposts in France. “Monitoring the Pakistani community is essential in preventing any violent act,” said the report.
The DCRG also warned that Britain was at risk from radicals within its Pakistani community, said Le Figaro, noting that the report was completed in late June, soon before London’s July 7 attacks.
Louis Caprioli, a former anti-terrorism officer with France’s DST counter-espionage agency, said the Pakistani community in France “in so far as it has elements practising Islamic fundamentalism, has always attracted the attention of intelligence services.” “That started in the 1990s, when it emerged that Pakistan was a transit point for jihad training in Afghanistan,” he said. agencies
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-8-2005_pg7_4