Six Pakistanis charged in US for aiding Taliban

[Bilal_Mushi]

Six Pakistanis charged in US for aiding Taliban

Updated 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON: US officials arrested three Pakistani Americans on Saturday and charged them and three others with providing or conspiring to provide "material support" to the Pakistani Taliban, the US Justice Department said.

"All six defendants are charged with conspiring to provide, and providing, material support to a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas, as well as conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, specifically, the Pakistani Taliban," the department said in a statement.

Hafiz Sher Ali, 76-year-old man and his two his two sons, Irfan Khan and Izhar Khan were arrested from different parts of the country, the Justice Department said.

FBI arrested Hafiz Sher Ali and Izhar Khan from South Florida while Irfan Khan was rounded up from Los Angeles.

The US Justice Department further said three others including Ali Rehman alias Faisal Ali Rehman, Alam Zaib and Amina Bibi (daughter of Hafiz Sher Ali) had also been charged but, added that they were at large in Pakistan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=15544

 

[simple_and_peacefull]

i don't understand ..why they mentioned six PAKISTANI ..... why didn't they mentioned only six Americans.....once these got American nationallty so they left Pakistani nationallty. they are no more Pakistanis. if they are holding pakisani nationallies at time of aresst then it can mention our name if not then no one is allow to missuse it.

 

[FaisalKh]

This is nothing but another tactic of Spy war games. They will come up with more stories like these in the near future until ties between ISI and CIA normalizes.... Pakistan will harass their citizens here in Pakistan and they would do the same. Just wait for the news about US spies arrested in Pak hopefully soon INSHAALLAH....

 

[islamabadi]

i don't understand ..why they mentioned six PAKISTANI ..... why didn't they mentioned only six Americans.....once these got American nationallty so they left Pakistani nationallty. they are no more Pakistanis. if they are holding pakisani nationallies at time of aresst then it can mention our name if not then no one is allow to missuse it.

It's because these people are hypocrites....they swear to pledge alegiance to the United States but in fact these lowlifes don't mean it. These turncoats are such lowlifes that they go pledge allegiance to the same country (USA) which is bombing their original countries. Bunch of Mir Jaffers...they have to be banned from ever entering Pakistan again.

 

[desicad]

Florida Imams arrested for aiding Pakistani Taliban

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Imam of a Florida mosque and his two sons, one also a Muslim spiritual leader, were arrested on Saturday on charges of financing and supporting the Pakistani Taliban, U.S. officials said.
The three Pakistan-born U.S. citizens were among six charged in a U.S. indictment that accused them of "supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere" carried out by the Pakistani Taliban, which Washington calls a terrorist organization.
The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo Ferrer and the FBI, charged the six with creating a network that transferred funds from the United States to Pakistani Taliban supporters and fighters in Pakistan, including for the purpose of buying arms.
If convicted, each faces up to 15 years in prison for each count of the indictment.
The charges were revealed at a time when U.S. relations with Pakistan are strained over the U.S. raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Pakistan's parliament on Saturday condemned the raid that killed bin Laden and called for a review of relations with the United States.
The indictment detailed money transfers totaling some $50,000, but Ferrer said there was evidence more had been sent. "This was just the tip of the iceberg," he told reporters.
Two of the accused, Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, and his son, Izhar Khan, 24, were arrested in south Florida after prayer services at the mosques where they were spiritual leaders, or Imams.
Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was detained early on Saturday in a Los Angeles hotel room.
Hafiz Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, in Miami. His son, Izhar Khan, is an Imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida, according to the indictment.
The other three charged, Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb and Amina Khan, were living in Pakistan and are still at large. Amina Khan is the daughter of Hafiz Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is his grandson.
RECORDED CONVERSATIONS
Officials said the arrests and charges followed a three-year investigation into suspicious financial transactions and was based on recorded conversations and a trail of money moving from U.S. bank accounts to Pakistan.
John Gillies, a special agent in the FBI's Miami office, said there was no link between this case and the documents and other intelligence taken from the compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed this month.
Prosecutors also allege that Hafiz Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through a madrassa, or Islamic school, in Swat, Pakistan, which they said he used to house militants.
"We have evidence that the madrassa was being used at his direction to shelter members of the Pakistan Taliban and prepare children to become mujahideen," or Muslim fighters, Ferrer added.
"Despite being an Imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace," he said.
The Pakistani Taliban is classified as a "designated foreign terrorist organization" by the U.S. government, which says it is linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"Let me be clear that this is not an indictment against a particular community or religion. Instead, today's indictment charges six individuals for promoting terror and violence through their financial and other support of the Pakistani Taliban," Ferrer said.
In another ongoing case that could sour relations with Pakistan, a Pakistani-born man accused of aiding militants in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India is set to go on trial in Chicago next week.
(Additional reporting and writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Xavier Briand)
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-charges-six-supporting-pakistani-taliban-154921170.html

 

[simple_and_peacefull]

Family of detained Pakistani-Americans deny funding TTP
By Fazal Khaliq
Published: May 16, 2011

Worshippers perform ablution in Flagler Mosque, Miami. PHOTO: AFP
SWAT:
The family of three Pakistan-born American citizens, who were arrested by the US on Saturday, have denied having ever financed militancy.
The three, arrested in Florida and Los Angeles, belonged to Sirsinai-Galoch area of Swat Valley’s Kabal sub-district. They are among six people charged in a US indictment that accuses them of “supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere” carried out by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
One of those arrested, Hafiz Mohammad Sher Ali Khan, is the imam of a Florida mosque and had migrated to America 18 years ago where he eventually acquired the American citizenship. In Swat, his madrassa is situated at the square connecting Sirisini and Kabal.
According to Khan’s family, the money he sent from the US was used for this madrassa, not to finance militancy.
“Yes, he [Khan] sent money but that was only to pay the imam of the madrassa and to cover utility bills of the mosque and madrassa,” said Khan’s grandson Alam Zeb, who is among the accused. “He sent the money through his friend Ali Rahman, a shopkeeper in Mingora, to my uncle Inayatullah who lives in Kala Kaley, a nearby village,” he said, adding they had also bought some property using that money.
Khan’s daughter Amina Bibi, who is also one of the accused, said that her salary as a schoolteacher wasn’t even enough to cover her travel expenses to the school. “I was paid just Rs6,000 and the school was located in a far-flung area where no public transport was available. Everyone in the village knows that we bought property with the money that my father sent.”
However, according to Saifullah Khan, leader of the Nepkikhel Aman Jirga, Amina Bibi had helped finance the Taliban. “At the beginning of Talibanisation, Amina resigned from her job. She calculated the entire salary that she had been paid by the government and gave it to the Taliban as she considered it Haram (illegal). She even donated her jewellery,” Saifullah said.
Dawood Shah, Khan’s granddaughter’s fianc, is also said to have actively assisted the Taliban by sending them money from his in-laws. Shah is presently in the custody of security forces. But locals said they had no information on the family’s whereabouts.
“Maybe they have gone to the US or are hiding here in Pakistan,” Saifullah said, adding that Khan and his family regularly visited Swat but had not been seen for a while.
But their names are well-known in the area. “When I heard their names in the news, I recalled them. They had left here 18 years ago. I am not sure if they financed the Taliban in Swat but we never saw any doubtful activity in this madrassa,” Yousuf Khan, a resident of Galoch, said.
The madrassa, where Nazira Quran is taught to nearly 70 children of the area, is registered with the Social Welfare Department of Swat that has started functioning again. The current imam of the madrassa, Rahmat Bacha, is a local resident who has been living in Mingora for 12 years.
“The madrassa remained closed for three years but last year, I was appointed according to the wishes of the security forces,” Bacha said. “I teach only basic Quranic lessons and some other verses.”
Walid Akbar, 12, a student of the madrassa, said, “I study in grade six and come here after school to learn Nazira Quran, Salat and some other verses and nothing else.”
When contacted, local police also appeared not to know about these people. They said that no arrests had been
made nor had they initiated any legal proceedings against the family.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2011.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/169630/family-of-detained-pakistani-americans-deny-funding-ttp/

 

[Imranpak]

It's all about cornering Pak so that they can enter the country to seize the nukes. They first need to get the public on their side through proganda of this kind....

We'll be ready for them when the time comes.