Pakistan releases four Thai students

BANGKOK, June 12 (TNA) - Pakistani authorities have released four out of five Thai students who were arrested on June 8 on charge of carrying a gun while boarding a flight at the Lahore International Airport and they are scheduled to arrive home on June 13. National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Anusit Kunakorn told journalists of the update on Friday, saying that the remaining one student who was found to carry the gun at the airport remains in detention in Pakistan for further interrogation by local authorities. The NSC chief stressed that local police will question the freed four Thai students as soon as they arrive in Thailand although no link between the Thai students and the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been found so far. The NSC chief admitted, however, that authorities concerned are looking into whether there is any connection between the students and insurgents in the Thai Far South. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the freed four Thai students are scheduled to arrive in Thailand on early Saturday morning, while the now only detained Thai student in Pakistan is identified as a native of Pattani Province in the Thai Far South. (TNA)