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Passengers aboard a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai and forced to turn back to Amsterdam said air marshals swooped after 12 people began fidgeting with mobile phones and plastic bags, Dutch media said on Thursday. The 12 were arrested on Wednesday after the plane landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Prosecution authorities said they were still holding the 12 but would not give their identities or nationalities. "I saw the air marshals run and I knew something was amiss," a 31-year-old businessman aboard the plane told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. "Some had beards, others were unshaven, one was wearing a...

"Is keeping beard a sin in this world?" screams Abdul Kadar Kolsawala, 70, on the top of his voice in his two-room apartment at Memon Colony in Jogeshwari, a north-western suburb of Mumbai. "The terrorists get away all the time but it is only innocent Muslims who are caught," says Kadar. "It has become difficult to move around with a beard. The police doubt your credentials all the time. My son is innocent and he has nothing to do with terrorism," he adds. Kolsawala's son Ayub was detained by the Dutch police along with eight friends and two cooks at...

HAARLEM, Netherlands — Prosecutors said Thursday they found no evidence of a terrorist threat aboard a Northwest Airlines flight to India that returned to Amsterdam, and they are releasing all 12 passengers arrested after the emergency landing. The men, all Indian nationals, had aroused suspicions on Flight NW0042 to Bombay because they had a large number of cell phones, lap tops and hard drives, and refused to follow the crew's instructions, prosecutors said. Because of those actions by the passengers, the pilot of the DC-10 radioed for help shortly after takeoff Wednesday and the plane was escorted back to Amsterdam's...

List of Detainees: (1) Mohammad Iqbal Batliwala (2) Noor Mohammad Habeeb Batliwala (3) Yusru Haji Gaffar Memon (4) Yousuf Mohammad Salman Mohammad (5) Imran Mohammad Yousuf (6) Shakeel Osman Chhotani (7) Sohail Abdul Aziz Nizami (8) Ayub Abdul Qadir (9) Sajid Abdul Qadir (10) Ghulam Mustafa (11) Mohammad Ayub Khan (12) Mohammad Farooq Hasham

Amsterdam, Aug. 23 (AP): Dutch police arrested 12 passengers who aroused the crew's suspicion on a U.S. airline flight to India after it returned on Wednesday to Amsterdam escorted by two F-16 jet fighters, a spokesman said. Police spokesman Rob Staenacker said he could not disclose the nationalities of the people taken from the Northwest DC-10 after it was diverted over German airspace, or the nature of the suspicions against them. ``I can tell you 12 people have been arrested,'' he said. It was not immediately clear if they had been charged. An American passenger, who identified herself only as...

The Islamic Jihadists have established extensive networks in Europe to cause trouble for India bound passenger jets. International travel experts call for avoiding Europe as any stop while travelling from US or elsewhre to India. The Pakistani jihadists are targeting these planes. Any plane originating from Europe to US or India or Israel can be dangerous. US Northwest Airlines plane bound for Mumbai was turned back to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday accompanied by Dutch fighter planes due to worrying passenger behaviour, officials said. According to media reports, "Northwest flight number 42 from Amsterdam to Mumbai with 149 passengers returned...

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Twelve passengers on a Northwest Airlines flight that returned to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after the pilot raised an alert over worrying behaviour have been arrested, the Dutch ANP news agency has reported. The plane was flying from the Dutch capital to Mumbai, India, with 149 passengers on board on Wednesday when what the pilot called "behavior of concern" prompted him to return to Amsterdam. The plane was escorted by two Dutch air force jets.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police arrested 12 passengers on a U.S. Northwest Airlines plane bound for India which was forced to turn back to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday, news agency ANP reported. ANP quoted a police spokesman as saying 12 were arrested, but declined to give further details due to the ongoing investigation. Police officials were not immediately available to comment. The Dutch Defense Ministry said earlier the pilot decided to turn back after the crew said several of the 149 passengers on flight 42 to Mumbai were behaving suspiciously. Security has been increased at airports worldwide in the...

24 minutes ago AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch F-16s escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for India back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday, and authorities detained several passengers for questioning, an airport spokeswoman said. The pilot of the aircraft radioed Schiphol for permission to return and a military escort as it was flying over Germany shortly after leaving Amsterdam, said spokeswoman Pamela Kuypers. Rick Hirs, a spokesman for the customs police at Schiphol, said it was not clear why the plane had returned. "We don't know yet. We are interviewing passengers and crew members," he said. Hirs said nobody on...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- An airport spokeswoman says Dutch F-16s have escorted a Northwest Airlines flight back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.