The Bureau of Immigration is set to deport a Pakistani man suspected of being a would-be suicide bomber linked with the Dawlah Islamiya terrorist group.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Waqar Ahmad, aged 36, was arrested by operatives from the BI’s Mindanao Intelligence Task Group and the police yesterday (Tuesday, June 18).
“He will be deported as his presence here is inimical to national security,” the bureau chief said in a statement today.
“He also violated our immigration laws by working here without applying for an employment visa.”
Ahmad, who works as a storekeeper and collector in Zamboanga City, is now in police custody.
Commissioner Morente said Ahmad will undergo deportation proceedings for being an “undesirable alien” due to his alleged terrorist links and for working in the country without a permit.
He was arrested after several days of surveillance conducted by members of the police’s Regional Intelligence Unit 9 at the appliance store of his Pakistani uncle in Zamboanga City.
BI records show that Ahmad arrived in the Philippines on April 19.
Comm. Morente also said that the Ahmed “cannot set foot in the Philippines again” after being deported as he will be placed on the BI’s blacklist and banned from returning to the country.
“He did not even have the proper permit or visa to engage in work in the Philippines. We highly doubt his story,” Comm. Morente added.
He also cited international intelligence reports suggesting Ahmad’s links to the radical Islamist group Dawlah Islamiya, which allegedly has ties to the Islamic State and the Maute group, both of which have been blamed for a series of bomb attacks in the south of the country.
The same reports alleged that he was preparing to meet with a leader of the Abu Sayyaf terror group in Basilan in order to plan suicide bombings in the province.
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