BI foils entry of alleged Al Qaeda man at NAIA

February 14, 2017

Immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) foiled over the weekend an attempt to enter the country by a Pakistani suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente, in a statement on Tuesday, disclosed that 43-year-old Muhammad Arif was intercepted last Saturday at the NAIA 1 terminal upon his arrival aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.

Morente said upon confirming the Pakistani is in the BI database of blacklisted aliens and suspected foreign terrorists, he was immediately turned back and booked on the first available flight to his port of origin.

“We were informed that his purpose in coming here was doubtful because he could not pinpoint the places that he wanted to visit.  He also could not tell why he was traveling alone,” Morente said.

Thus, Morente said “our immigration officers had no choice but to exclude him for posing a threat to our national security and risk to public safety.”

It was learned that when Arif presented his passport at the immigration counter, the passenger registered a hit on the computer of the immigration officer showing that he is in the Interpol’s database of “Al Qaeda Sanction List” of individuals.

The BI database, on the other hand, showed the Pakistani was the subject of a blacklist order issued by then Immigration chief Ricardo David Jr. in Sept. 2011, also for being an alleged Al Qaeda member.

When interviewed by the immigration supervisor, Arif claimed he owns the Dawn  pharmaceuticals store in Islamabad and is a distributor of Novartis Pharmaceutical Co,.

He also said he intended to vacation in the Philippines and stay for four days at the Malayan Plaza Hotel in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Immigration authorities also noticed a striking resemblance between the passenger’s passport picture and the photographs of a Muhammad Arif stored in the Interpol database. DMS