London, Sept 28: A terror alarm that diverted and grounded a homeward PIA flight to Stockholm might have been sounded by a spurned lover, seeking revenge on her ex-boyfriend who was onboard, on his way to wed in Karachi.
A 28-year old Canadian of Pakistani-origin was briefly detained after the plane carrying 273 passengers, including three hapless Indians, made an emergency landing at Arlanda following a call alerting security agencies that the man was carrying explosives.
The passengers faced a long haul at the Stockholm airport as the Swedish police pulled out the youth and searched the aircraft for hours for the explosives. The Canadian man was briefly arrested in connection with the allegations but then released without charge after no explosives were found aboard the plane, flying from Toronto to Karachi. While, the plane was let off the unfortunate man faced another long ordeal. Though he was cleared to go home to get married he failed to find an airliner to take him back. By the time he was cleared to fly back home, word about the alleged terror plot had spread and the airliners refused to take him as passenger, a Swiss newspaper said. The Swedish police have not given up the terror theory even after media reports that it was an angry ex-girlfriend who had called in the hoax bomb alert to Canadian police at the weekend that forced the Pakistan-bound plane to make an emergency landing in Stockholm.
The report said, the girl who is still to be identified was unhappy with their separation, a Swedish newspaper reported today.
"From what I understood, an ex came forward with the claim in connection with their separation. It was surely not a happy one," a Stockholm police officer told a newspaper.
"She had an evil eye on him," he said, adding that according to the cleared suspect's written statement he was going to get married in Pakistan.
The Swedish police spokesman said that the man who was detained but then released without charge after his plane had already left for Pakistan, was expected to leave Sweden today. PTI
