'Terror alert' pair tell of ordeal

Two Asian students thrown off a plane because other passengers feared they were terrorists said that they could not believe they were suspected of being bombers.

Sohail Ashraf and Khurram Zeb, both 22, said they sympathised with nervous travellers, but urged people not to be paranoid about Muslims.

"We might be Asian, but we're two ordinary lads who wanted a bit of fun," Mr Ashraf told the Daily Mirror. "Just because we're Muslim does not mean we are suicide bombers."

The pair were marched off the jet at gunpoint after fellow passengers alerted officials on the flight back from Malaga, Spain.

Holidaymakers on board flight ZB 613 from Malaga to Manchester became alarmed at the men's behaviour, and demanded that air staff remove them from the plane in the incident last week. Cabin crew informed Spanish authorities of the passengers' fears and the men were taken off the Monarch Airlines flight and quizzed by police.

Some passengers reportedly stormed off the Airbus 320 aircraft and refused to fly unless the pair were removed.

On Wednesday, the students told how they had been away on a day trip to scout out the area for a longer holiday later in the year, and spent the afternoon drinking and eating McDonald's burgers.

They said they been talking in Urdu before the plane took off, when an elderly woman sitting close to them began asking them questions and became suspicious of them.

The pair, who are studying at Manchester's Umist institution, were not allowed to fly and were quizzed by officers for several hours. But they were given a meal, put up in a hotel and allowed to fly back to the UK later that day.

Mr Ashraf said they were able to laugh about the ordeal when they were sitting in the hotel room. "We sat on our beds and Khurram said 'You don't look like a terrorist'. I said 'Neither do you'. Then we both collapsed with laughter. I suppose we were a bit hysterical. It all felt very odd. We've never experienced racism before so it was very unnerving," he said.