Thai police arrest Pakistani passport forger linked to Islamic State

A Pakistani passport forger whose fakes were said to have been sold to Islamic State operatives has been arrested in Thailand, police said on Friday, ending a career that may have helped people slip into Europe illegally.

Mohammad Iqbal, 52, was arrested on January 14 in a Bangkok suburb with fake Singaporean and Indian passports, plates and laminates to forge entry visas to France, Italy and Spain.

“He has worked on faking documents for a long time using Thailand as his base,” Commander of the Immigration Bureau Lieutenant General Suttipong Vongpint told reporters in Bangkok.

Iqbal, who is believed to have operated from Thailand for more than 10 years, was charged with falsifying passports, visa seals and trafficking of fake passports a few days after police seized him as he pulled into his Bangkok condo on a motorbike.

Earlier this week defence minister Prawit Wongsuwon linked Iqbal to a group selling passports to Islamic State.

“The suspect has falsified visa and passports for the IS group with the attempt to make them travel from the Middle East into Thailand,” he said, adding that the attempts were unsuccessful.