Philippine prosecutors said on Thursday that they were looking into the alleged terrorist links of a Bangladeshi man arrested in the restive southern Mindanao island on suspicion he was plotting bomb attacks on government targets.Muhammad Alpariz, 48, earlier erroneously reported by the police as a Pakistani, was arrested by security forces in Mindanao on Sunday. He is alleged to have ties with a Muslim separatist group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and a crime gang that extorted money from businessmen in the south of the country.
Alpariz denied the charges, but signed a waiver to remain in police custody while the investigation was being carried out. "Pending the completion of the preliminary investigation proceedings, I agree to remain under police custody," he said in a document he signed before the state prosecutor at the Justice Department. His lawyer said that at the moment Alpariz could only be charged with illegal possession of explosives, for which he could post bail. The authorities allege three mortar shell rounds were found at a telephone repair shop that the suspect owned. Intelligence officials linked Alpariz to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an Indonesian group acknowledged by the intelligence community as the Southeast Asia arm of Al Qaeda. They said Alpariz had planned bombings in Mindanao to divert military attention from the MILF, which has been engaged in intense combat with troops since August. The military has said that dozens of JI militants remain in Mindanao and are helping the MILF to carry out attacks.