Maldivians in Lanka held on al Qaeda suspicion

Colombo, Apr 24: Sri Lankan police detained five Maldivians as they tried to leave from the island's international airport, and said today the group was suspected of links to al Qaeda.

The man, two women and two children were boarding a plane to Qatar late yesterday when they were seized by police, who said Maldivian intelligence had tipped them off that the group was connected to the militant Islamist group. ''I don't know whether they are al Qaeda but we are investigating the incident on information from Maldivian Interpol,'' a senior police official said.

He said the five had arrived in Sri Lanka a week ago from the Maldives capital of Male.

A majority of the 300,000 people in the Maldives, a cluster of Indian Ocean islands best known for their palm-fringed beach resorts, are Muslims.

REUTERS

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