MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The Dutch authorities said late on Thursday that they had found no evidence of explosives or terrorist threat aboard the Northwestern Airlines plane that returned to Amsterdam mid-flight, and are releasing the 12 arrested passengers.
The Mumbai-bound plane had been escorted to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport by Dutch F-16 fighters on Wednesday following "suspicious behaviour" by some of the passengers.
By late Thursday, it had become clear that the 12 detained passengers were Indian nationals. They are garment exporters from the Oshiwara region of Mumbai and had gone to Trinidad and Tobago to attend a trade fair.
The Dutch police had said it was investigating if the men were linked to an international terror plot. However, sources in the Indian establishment had told DNA in the evening that the Dutch authorities would not press terrorism charges against the 12 detained, but they would be charged for disrupting the flight.
According to the Dutch briefing, the passengers had created a "ruckus in the plane", and used their mobile phones even after the plane took off. They refused to listen to the airline staff when asked to stop. "They were a little drunk probably," sources in the security establishment told DNA. The detained passengers were also accused of rushing to the business class in protest.
At least one of the passengers on board the flight had told Indian officials in Amsterdam that the plane crew had "over-reacted". The opinion seems accurate with the Dutch authorities now admitting that there was no terror plot.
Earlier, the Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma had said that the Indian Embassy at The Hague has "sought consular access" to the detained. India's charge d'affaires Riva Ganguly Das and other senior Indian diplomats are believed to be in Amsterdam.
The passengers who were detained are: Ayub Khan, Ayub Qadir, Sajid Qadir, Batliwala Mohammed Iqbal, Batliwala Noor Mohammed, Memon Yusuf Hazi Gaffar, Yusuf Mohammad, Imran Mohammad, Shakeel Usman Chotani, Suhail Abdul Aziz Nijami, Mustafa Gulam, Mohammad Qasravi Hasan.
