LAHORE: The Airport Security Force (ASF) has arrested four young Thai nationals after recovering weapons and bullets from the luggage of one of them at Allama Iqbal International Airport.

An ASF official told Dawn that four `suspected passengers` were taken into custody from the Thai flight TG-346 which was leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday. `A pistol and six bullets were found in the luggage of a Thai national. After recovery of the weapon and bullets the ASF also took three of his fellow passengers into custody and shifted them to Sarwar Road police station,` the official said.

However, a source in the ASF said three pistols and bullets were concealed in the handbags of the main suspect. `Three of the suspects had got the boarding cards,` the source said, suspecting that they might have planned to hijack the plane.

As the Sarwar Road police station denied receiving the suspects, the source said, the four Thai nationals, who are in 20s, had been handed over to an intelligence agency for investigation. They are said to be the students of a seminary in Swat and they had purchased the weapons and bullets from there.

`They are also fluent in Urdu,` he said and added that the intelligence agency had taken some of their fellows into custody for interrogation.