Washington, Sep 3 (IANS) A Pakistan-born man living on the outskirts of Washington has been charged with providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan based terrorist group behind the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
The FBI began investigating 24-year-old Jubair Ahmad about two years ago on a tip that he could be connected to LeT, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US in 2001, prosecutors said Friday.
Ahmad, who was arrested Friday at his apartment in Woodbridge, in northern Virginia, is also charged with making false statements in a terrorism investigation.
A permanent legal resident, he faces up to 23 years in prison if convicted of both charges. He was ordered to be held in custody until his next appearance Wednesday before an Alexandria, Virginia, federal court.
Ahmad attended an LeT training course in 2004 and at one point he attended a commando course but he only spent a week there because his instructor told him he was too young, according to court documents.
In September 2010, Ahmad produced a propaganda video and posted it on YouTube on behalf of LeT. He communicated with the son of LeT leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed about making the video, which showed Saeed and claimed to show ‘jihadi martyrs’ and armoured trucks exploding from improvised explosive devices, the complaint said.
When confronted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents last month with the video, he falsely denied seeing it previously, according to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint.
Ahmad told the court Friday he couldn’t afford an attorney but expects the Council on American-Islamic Relations to provide one. The court appointed a public defender for him.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
