Three Pakistan-born US nationals, including the imams of two Florida mosques, were arrested on Saturday on charges of financing and supporting the Pakistani Taliban, US officials said. The three were among six charged in an indictment that accused them of ‘supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere’ carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is classified as a ‘designated foreign terrorist organisation’ by the US government.
The indictment was announced by US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo A Ferrer and local FBI agents. Two of the accused, Hafiz Sher Ali Khan, 76, and his son, Izhar Khan, 24, were arrested in South Florida. Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was detained in Los Angeles. The elder Khan is the Imam at the Miami Mosque in Miami while Izhar is the prayer leader at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in Margate, Florida. The other three charged, Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb and Amina Khan, were living in Pakistan.
Amina Khan is the daughter of Hafiz Khan and her son, Alam Zeb, is his grandson. “The defendants sought to aid the Pakistani Taliban’s fight against the Pakistani government and its perceived allies, including the United States, by supporting acts of murder, kidnapping, and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere,” said the indictment released by the US attorney’s office in Miami.
