Three U.S. Citizens Among Six Charged With Supporting Taliban in Pakistan
Two Americans of Pakistani descent face a court date tomorrow for allegedly providing “material support” to the Pakistani Taliban. A third U.S. citizen and three other people also were indicted in the case.
Three of those indicted, including two South Florida imams, were arrested yesterday in the U.S., the Justice Department said yesterday in a statement. The others are at large in Pakistan. All are charged with supporting a conspiracy to murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas as well as aiding the Pakistani Taliban, which has vowed to retaliate against the U.S. for killing al- Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Named in the indictment are Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, of Miami; two of his sons, Irfan Khan, 37, of Miami, and Izhar Khan, 24, of North Lauderdale, Florida, also U.S. citizens; and Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb, and Amina Khan. All are originally from Pakistan, the Justice Department said.
“Despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace,” U.S. Attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer of the Southern District of Florida said in the statement. “Instead, he acted with others to support terrorists to further acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming.”
Hafiz and Izhar Khan, who is also an imam, were arrested in South Florida while Irfan Khan was picked up in Los Angeles, according to the statement. Amina Khan is Hafiz Khan’s daughter and Zeb is her son, the government said.
Court Appearances Set
Hafiz and Izhar Khan are scheduled to appear tomorrow in federal court in Miami. Irfan Khan is expected to make his initial court appearance in Los Angeles.
Each of the defendants was charged with at least three counts, and each count could lead to 15 years in prison.
The Miami Herald reported yesterday that Hafiz Khan is the leader of the oldest mosque in that city. The Justice Department identified it as the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque. Izhar Khan is an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida, the department said, adding that the mosques themselves aren’t accused of wrongdoing.
Ikram Khan, another son of Hafiz Khan and a Miami taxi driver, told the newspaper that his father was too old and sick to be involved in such events. He said the family supports the U.S., where they have lived since 1994.
“None of my family supports the Taliban,” he said, according to the Herald.
Financial Transactions
The FBI began the investigation based on a review of financial transactions, according to the Justice Department.
The indictment lists repeated dealings from the U.S. to Pakistan and alleges that Hafiz Khan and the others were attempting to finance gun purchases for the Pakistani Taliban. It also describes conversations in which Hafiz Khan allegedly wished for the deaths of Americans and called for a violent revolution in Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban has been involved in several attacks on U.S. targets in South Asia. The group claimed responsibility for bombings on May 13 that killed 80 people at a paramilitary police academy in northwestern Pakistan. It said an attack on the U.S. is next, as part of its attempts to avenge bin Laden’s death.
The U.S. State Department declared the group a foreign terrorist organization on Aug. 12, 2010.
To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Rubin in Washington at rubin12@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Enoch denoch@bloomberg.net
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