The two suspected terrorists who were arrested while trying to cross into South Africa through Beit Bridge Border Post appeared in court, charged with contravening sections of the Immigration Act.

Imran Muhammad (33) and Warraich Chaudhry Pervez Ahmed (39) remained seated in a bus while other passengers went to the immigration offices to have their documents checked. An alert local immigration officer who spotted the two became suspicious and confronted them. They were found in possession of Tanzanian Emergency Travel Documents whose names did not tally with those on their Pakistani passports.

Muhammad and Ahmed were not asked to plead when they appeared before a local magistrate, Mrs Sandra Mupindu. The case was postponed to 22 July to allow the state to seek a Pakistani interpreter, as they were not conversant in English. The court was told that the two were being charged under the Immigration Act, after they failed to present themselves to an immigration officer, and possession of travel documents to which they were not entitled.

Muhammad is a Pakistan national residing at 5/15 Ghoray, Sha Road, Lahore, and is unemployed, while Ahmed’s address was not given.

The forged documents, it is alleged, indicated that on 14 June this year the two used them to enter Zimbabwe from Zambia via Chirundu Border Post.