Pakistan: The Footprints of Terror: America

2015

November 24: A man of Pakistani origin, identified as Abid Naseer (29), was jailed for 40 years in the US on November 23 for plotting to bomb a British shopping center with al Qaeda. Naseer was first arrested in 2009 in Britain with 11 other men suspected of preparing to attack the mall in Manchester, and was extradited to the US from Britain in 2013. "You are not a typical criminal," Judge Raymond Dearie told Naseer in the US Federal Court in Brooklyn. "You are a terrorist." A US jury found him guilty of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda and with conspiring to use a destructive device.

June 11: A federal judge imposed the maximum possible prison sentences on two Pakistan-born brothers who admitted trying to pull off a terrorist bomb attack against New York City landmarks and later assaulted two deputy US marshals while in custody. District Judge Beth Bloom compared the plot, which never got past the planning stages, to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings in which the two attackers used commonplace pressure cookers. In the Florida case, evidence shows the younger brother, 22-year-old Raees Alam Qazi, researched how to make bombs on the Internet using readily available items such as Christmas tree lights and chemicals.

March 4: A Pakistani national, identified as Abid Naseer (28), was convicted on US charges of conspiring with al Qaeda to bomb targets in Europe and the US. Naseer was found guilty by a Federal Jury in Brooklyn for providing material support to al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device. Naseer remained expressionless as the jury returned the verdict after less than two days of deliberations. He faces life in prison.

US prosecutors said Naseer led an al Qaeda cell plotting to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England, in April 2009. The proposed attack was one of three plots affiliated al Qaeda cells were working on, along with attacks against the New York City subway system and a Copenhagen newspaper, prosecutors said.

Naseer was convicted nearly six years after he was first arrested in a British anti-terrorism operation. While British authorities never charged Naseer, he was later indicted in the US and extradited in 2013. Naseer represented himself at trial. Representing himself in the trial, Naseer, a self-described semi-professional cricket player, denied any affiliation with al Qaeda or any plot. His court-appointed legal adviser said he would appeal.

Prosecutors said Naseer, who wrote in coded emails, using women's names for bomb ingredients and describing the attack as a wedding. Prosecutors used never-before publicised documents seized from the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as part of their case against Naseer and testimony from British MI5 officers who conducted surveillance on him.

2014

April 19: Jurors in the New York trial of British hate preacher Abu Hamza aka Mustafa Kamel Mustafa found him guilty of kidnapping and terrorism offenses. The former Imam of the north London Finsbury Park mosque, showed no reaction to the verdict, which carries a possible life sentence. He is to be sentenced on September 9, 2014. The charges against him pre-dated the 9/11 attacks on New York and were over the 1998 abduction of 16 Western tourists in Yemen, four of whom were killed in a military rescue operation. He was also accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in the United States in 1999, and of promoting "violent jihad" on a global scale. The jury deliberated for 12 hours over two days before reaching a verdict, after a four-week trial in which Abu Hamza took the stand for three days of testimony in his own defence.

April 17: A Pakistani immigrant, identified as Mohammad Hassan Khalid (20), who was convicted of US terror charges was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to taking part in a plan to kill a Swedish artist. Khalid, who committed the crime when he was 15 and has been in custody for three years for his role in the "Jihad Jane" conspiracy, will receive credit for that time and serve an additional two years in prison to finish his sentence, said the sentencing judge, Petrese Tucker, of US District Court in Philadelphia.+

2013

November 11: A Pakistani native living in the US, identified as Basit Javed Sheikh, alias Abdul Basit (29), from Cary is facing federal charges that he sought to join an al Qaeda-linked militant group fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sheikh is charged in a federal criminal indictment with attempting to provide material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization. He was arrested on November 2, 2013 before boarding the first of a series of flights that would take him to Lebanon. Sheikh told FBI informant that he was going to join the group called the Nusrah Front in Syria, an FBI agent said in a sworn affidavit obtained by Associated Press.

January 17: US District Judge handed Pakistani Canadian Tahawwur Rana a 14 year jail term for providing material support to LeT and for conspiring to provide material support for a plot involving attacks on the office of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The sentencing includes an additional five years of supervised release. According to a statement issued by the US Attorney's office in Chicago, the Judge said, "This certainly was a dastardly plot."

2012

May 4: A Pakistan-born US teen pleaded guilty to terror charges for offering assistance to a woman who called herself "Jihad Jane" and supported a terror cell bent on waging a jihad in Europe. The 18-year-old, Mohammad Hassan Khalid, faces a 15-year prison sentence for a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists for his offer to raise money and recruit terrorists. Khalid, then 17, was arrested in July 2011 after he corresponded with a woman who later admitted plotting to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims. He was 15 when he began online chats with Colleen LaRose, the US woman calling herself Jihad Jane. She now faces life in prison. Khalid was held in FBI custody as a juvenile before being indicted after turning 18. Khalid and his family are legal immigrants from Pakistan, and he could be deported following completion of his prison term. A sentencing date wasn't immediately set.

April 13: A United States national of Pakistani origin, Jubair Ahmad (24), was sentenced to 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release for providing material support to the LeT. Jubair Ahmad, who lived in Woodbridge, Virginia, received the sentence after being found guilty of promoting and urging recruitment for the LeT, designated by Washington as foreign terrorist organisation, the Justice Department said.

April 2: A 50-year-old Pakistani-Canadian was sentenced to 14 years in jail in US for providing material support to the Sikh militant group Khalistan Commando Force, blamed for carrying out assassinations and bombings in India. During sentencing proceeding, the US district court found that all three of Awan's crimes intended to promote crimes of terrorism, and imposed a prison sentence of 14 years. Khalid Awan was convicted in 2006 by a US federal jury in Brooklyn for providing financial aid to KCF.

In a statement, the FBI said KCF comprises Sikh militants seeking a separate Sikh State in Punjab and has been responsible for thousands of deaths in India since it was founded in 1986. The organisation has engaged in numerous assassinations of prominent Indian government officials - including that of Chief Minister Beant Singh of Punjab in 1995 - and hundreds of bombings, acts of sabotage, and kidnappings.

February 10: The father of a terrorist faced up to 40 years in prison after his conviction on charges that he destroyed evidence and lied to investigators to cover up his son's plot to attack the New York City subways in 2009. Mohammed Wali Zazi (55) remained free on bail after his conviction in July 2011. His son, Najibullah Zazi, admitted that he returned from a trip to Pakistan to his family's Colorado home to practice concocting homemade bombs using chemicals extracted from common beauty supplies. He drove to New York City in September 2009 with plans to attack the subway system in a 'martyrdom operation' before he learned he was being watched by the FBI and fled back to Colorado. The plot was sanctioned by Al Qaeda. The elder Zazi, an Afghan-born US citizen, was found guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Lawyers for Dr Aafia Siddiqui, serving an 86-year prison sentence for shooting at US soldiers in Afghanistan, told an appeals court that she was so mentally ill, she should have been barred from testifying at her own trial. Dr Aafia's lawyer, Dawn Cardi, told a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday that even though her client was judged competent to stand trial, she was so disabled by paranoid schizophrenia that the court should have taken the unusual step of barring her from testifying. "She had no intelligent understanding of what was going on," Cardi said. "She was not rational." Cardi also argued Dr Aafia was in the throes of mental illness when she made incriminating statements to FBI agents at a hospital in Afghanistan following the shooting. Dr Aafia, once a bright young student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University, was branded a fugitive terror suspect after she left the US in 2003 and married a nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the master planner behind the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Her whereabouts were a mystery until she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. A day later, she was wounded during a confrontation with US authorities who had gone to interrogate her. Six witnesses testified that she had grabbed a rifle and fired at the Americans.

February 6: Thomas Durkin, an attorney for Raja Lahrasib Khan, a Pakistani-born American taxi driver accused of attempting to send money to al Qaeda, said that his client will change his plea to guilty. Khan's lawyer said his client would change his plea in court after reaching an agreement with federal prosecutors. Khan is charged with attempting to provide material aid to terrorism by sending cash to the al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri.

January 6: A Pakistani national, identified as Irfan ul Haq (37) was sentenced to 50 months in prison for conspiring to smuggle a member of the TTP outfit into the US. "Irfan conspired with others to smuggle into the US an individual who was believed to be a member of a Foreign Terrorist Organisation," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A Breuer, after the sentencing was announced by a US District Court.

Two other Pakistani nationals Qasim Ali (32) and Zahid Yousaf (43) were sentenced respectively to 40 months and 36 months in prison in the same incident. The three were arrested in Miami in March 2011 after accepting payment and procuring a fake Pakistani passport for the TTP member. FBI Special Agent in Charge Gillies said that Haq and his co-conspirators sought to smuggle men into the US and did not care if they came here to "blow up" something as long as they got paid. Haq told the federal informants it was not his concern what the purported member of the TTP wanted to do in the US, saying if they want to do " hard labor, sweep floors, wash dishes in a hotel, or blow up. That will be up to them," court documents said. "Today's sentence successfully brings to a close our prosecution of three criminals who aimed to use their human smuggling network to help a person who they believed to be a terrorist infiltrate our homeland," said US Attorney Ronald Machen, adding, "We have demonstrated our ability to dismantle human smuggling operations throughout the world when they threaten our national security".

Another Pakistani national, Nadeem Akhtar (46) who lives in Maryland outside Washington was sentenced to 37 months in a US prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to illegally transfer nuclear-related materials to Pakistan from the US. Akhtar took direction from the owner of a trading company in Karachi who had business relationships with a Pakistani Government entity. He admitted that he and his conspirators from the UAE and New York used his company to obtain or attempt to get various nuclear-related devices and equipment from 2005 to 2010 and he misrepresented what they were and to whom they would be sold, the Justice Department said. The items, which included radiation detection devices, resins for coolant water purification and calibration and switching equipment, had a value of more than USD 400,000.

2011

December 2: Mohammad Younis, unwittingly swept up in a failed terror plot to bomb Times Square on May 1, 2010, was sentenced to three year's probation. Mohammad Younis had pleaded guilty to charges he arranged an illegal transfer of USD 7,000 to Faisal Shahzad - money Shahzad claimed that the TTP provided to fund his one-man strike against New York City. Younis and his brother in Pakistan were part of underground money transfer system known as Hawala, authorities said. When the Times Square attack was in the planning stages, Younis` brother sent him the cash that he delivered to Shahzad at a Long Island railroad station. Prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan acknowledged that Younis never knew about Shahzad's plot. But they argued that a potential sentence of up to six months would be appropriate to deter money transmissions that could fund terrorism.

A Pakistani man living in the United States faces up to 15 years in jail after pleading guilty Friday to providing material support to the feared Islamist militant outfit LeT. US justice officials said Jubair Ahmad (24), posted a propaganda video for LeT "glorifying violent jihad" in 2010, three years after he arrived in the United States with his parents and two younger brothers. "Foreign terrorist organizations such as LeT use the Internet as part of well-orchestrated propaganda campaigns to radicalize and recruit individuals to wage violent jihad and to promote the spread of terror," said US Attorney Neil MacBride.

September 14: The FBI and Department of Justice said that three Pakistani citizens, arrested in Miami, have pleaded guilty to providing material support to the TTP. In a statement issued by the FBI, the three accused, named Irfanul Haq, Qasim Ali and Zahid Yousuf, pleaded guilty before a US district judge in Washington to the count of "conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation." The three were accused of trying to smuggle a "purported TTP member" into the US. In March 2011, the three were arrested in Miami on the count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. According to the FBI, "Haq, Ali and Yousaf admitted that between January 3 and March 10, 2011, they conspired to provide material support to the TTP in the form of false documentation and identification, knowing that the TTP engages in terrorist activity and terrorism. "According to court documents, Haq, Ali and Yousaf conducted a human smuggling operation in Quito, Ecuador, that attempted to smuggle an individual they believed to be a member of the TTP from Pakistan into the US."

September 2: A man of Pakistani origin has been arrested and charged in the US with supporting LeT, FBI officials said. Zubair Ahmad (24), of Woodbridge, Virginia, allegedly received religious training from the terrorist group as a teenager in Pakistan and later attended one of its training camps. Zubair came to the United States in 2007 with his family. He's been under investigation for two years, ever since the US Federal Bureau of Investigation got a tip that he might be connected to the group, the officials said. An affidavit submitted in a Virginia court claims that in September 2010, Zubair produced and uploaded a propaganda video to YouTube on behalf of LeT, after communications with a person named "Talha". In a subsequent conversation with another person, Zubair identified Talha as Talha Saeed, the son of LeT 'chief' Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. Talha and Zubair allegedly communicated about the images, music and audio that Zubair was to use to make the video. The final video contained images of LeT leader Hafiz Saeed, so-called jihadi martyrs and armoured trucks exploding after they were hit by improvised explosive devices. In October 2010, Talha allegedly contacted Zubair and requested that he revise the LeT propaganda video, giving Zubair specific instructions. Zubair allegedly revised the video and posted it on October 16, 2010. In August 2011, FBI agents interviewed Zubair, but he denied any involvement with the October 2010 video.

August 26: The FBI has secretly arrested a Pakistani juvenile, Mohammed K. (15), from Maryland for allegedly participating in a terrorism plot with an American woman, Colleen LaRose aka Jihad Jane, relatives of the juvenile said. Family members said Mohammed was lured by an adult and was too young to understand the consequences. "Some 47-year-old woman was taking advantage of a kid who was just 14 or 15 years old, someone who's easy to brainwash," a relative alleged. Mohammed K's family emigrated from Pakistan four years ago, and had received a full scholarship from Johns Hopkins University for further studies. They also say he was questioned by the FBI, without a parent or lawyer present, at least eight times.

Mohammed K. (15), of Ellicott City, a Maryland suburb near Washington, allegedly conspired with Colleen LaRose aka Jihad Jane, of Pennsylvania to solicit money and recruits for a jihad, the prosecution claimed. He is now 17.

July 27: A federal judge in Miami denied bail to a young Muslim cleric, Izhar Khan (24), arrested in May on charges of financing and supporting the TTP. The judge cited flight risk and a potential threat to community safety in rejecting bail for Izhar Khan, who has been charged along with his father and brother with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. The three Pakistani-born US citizens are among six charged in a US indictment with "supporting acts of murder, kidnapping and maiming in Pakistan and elsewhere" carried out by the TTP.

July 21: A US court remanded Kashmiri propagandist Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, accused of lobbying for Pakistan, to FBI custody till next week. A prosecution lawyer appeared in the court and requested more time to study this "complicated case". The lawyer said the defence also needed more time to prepare their case.

July 19: Two US citizens have been charged with illegally lobbying the United States for the Pakistan Government and ISI over the Kashmir, US authorities said. FBI agents arrested Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai (62), in Virginia on charges that he failed to register as an agent of a foreign Government. Zaheer Ahmad (63) was also charged but is believed to be in Pakistan. Both are naturalized US citizens. Pakistan has spent at least USD four million since the mid-1990s lobbying the US Congress and the White House through Fai and the Kashmiri American Council, also known as the Kashmir Center, where Fai served as Executive Director, according to an FBI affidavit filed in US court. An FBI affidavit detailed the alleged scheme in which Fai's organization received up to USD 700,000 annually from Pakistan to make campaign contributions to US politicians, sponsor conferences and other promotions. "Mr. Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose - to hide Pakistan's involvement behind his efforts to influence the US government's position on Kashmir," said Neil MacBride, US Attorney for Eastern Virginia.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington issued a statement denying any Government knowledge of such an arrangement. "Mr Fai is not a Pakistani citizen and the government and embassy of Pakistan have no knowledge of the case involving him," the statement said.

July 1: Two Pakistani-Muslim clerics, Hafiz Muhammad Sher Ali Khan and his son Izhar Khan, accused of providing financial support to a TTP are seeking release on bail in a Miami Federal Court in South Florida in US. According to details, both are imams in mosques in South Florida and have been in solitary confinement since their May 14, 2011 arrests. A second son charged in the case, Irfan Khan, will have a bail hearing July 15. Three other people, including a daughter and grandson are also charged but remain in Pakistan.

May 14: Two imams (prayer leaders) of Pakistani origin and a relative were arrested in Florida of US for their alleged links to the TTP. FBI agents arrested Hafiz Mohammed Sher Ali Khan and his son Izhar Khan in South Florida. They will appear before a federal court in South Florida on May 16. The US FBI, which arrested them, is also looking for three other people who are believed to be in Pakistan. Another of Hafiz Khan's sons, Irfan Khan, was arrested in Los Angeles and will appear in court there. Also charged are three Pakistani residents: Ali Rehman, Alam Zeb and Amina Khan. Ms Amina is Hafiz Khan's daughter, and Alam Zeb is her son. The four-count indictment alleges that the three defendants arrested in the US planned to provide 'material support' to a conspiracy to kill, injure and kidnap people abroad. They also allegedly provided support to the TTP. Hafiz Khan is the imam at Flagler Mosque in Miami. Izhar Khan is an imam at the Jamaat Al Mu'mineen Mosque in Margate of Florida.

April 25: Four more Pakistani conspirators have been charged by US prosecutors with carrying out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks on behalf of LeT. In a second superseding indictment filed by the federal prosecutors before a court in Chicago, the four were identified as Sajid Mir, Mazhar Iqbal, Abu Qahafa and one by the name of 'Major Iqbal'. Besides, the indictment mentioned an unnamed individual "Lashkar Member D." All are residents of Pakistan. The four persons identified were previously mentioned but not named in the indictments that charged Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana in connection with the Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people, including six Americans. Sajid Mir was associated with LeT and supervised others linked with the outfit. He served as a "handler" for Headley, who has confessed to his involvement in Mumbai attacks, and others who were directed to carry out actions relating to planning, preparing for and carrying out the terrorist strikes on behalf of LeT. While Abu Qahafa was an associate with LeT who trained others in combat techniques for use in terrorist attacks Mazhar Iqbal and 'Lashkar Member D' were LeT commanders. An individual known as 'Major Iqbal' participated in planning and funding attacks carried out by LeT in Mumbai, federal prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa and Mazhar Iqbal conspired with each other, Headley, 'Lashkar Member D' and others known and unknown to the grand jury, to deliver, place, discharge and detonate explosives and other lethal devices in, into and against places of public use, state and government facilities, public transportation systems and infrastructure facilities in India.

April 11: A Pakistan-born computer engineer, Farooque Ahmed (35), sentenced to 23 years in prison by a US court after he pleaded guilty to charges that he tried to assist suspected members of al Qaeda in planning bombings at Metro rail stations in the Washington area. A resident of Virginia, Farooque Ahmed pleaded guilty to the charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organisation and collecting information to assist in planning an attack on a transit facility. He was arrested by the FBI on October 27, 2010.

2010

October 27: A Pakistan origin American national, Farooque Ahmed (34) was arrested for plotting attacks on subway stations in and around Washington. Farooque Ahmed is believed to be tied to al Qaeda, US officials said. Farooque Ahmed, who lived in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, had been allegedly casing and photographing subway stations since April to plan simultaneous bomb attacks. "Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a coordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans," David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said.

October 22: A Pakistani national, Adnan Mirza (33), who moved to Texas in US on a student visa, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for conspiring to provide material support to the Taliban and illegal gun possession. Adnan Mirza was among several men arrested by the FBI in 2006 for engaging in at least six terrorism training sessions during weekend camping trips near Houston. The FBI also uncovered evidence that Mirza, who was attending a local community college, and the others were planning to send money to the Taliban. Mirza, who has been in custody since his arrest, was convicted in May 2010 of nine conspiracy and weapons charges.

October 5: Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born US citizen who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square was sentenced to life in prison. Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to a failed May 1 bombing in Midtown Manhattan. He admitted to investigators he received bomb-making training from the TTP, and funded the bomb plot. He was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by US District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum to life with no chance for parole.

August 26: A US Federal Official, Ross Feinstein, said that a Pakistani man from Maine was released from jail 15 weeks after he was arrested on an immigration violation while police were investigating the failed Times Square car bombing. Ross Feinstein of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Mohammad Shafiq Rahman was released from federal custody in Boston after posting USD 10,000 bail. Rahman, a computer programmer from South Portland, and two men from Massachusetts were arrested on immigration violations on May 13 as investigators probed the May 1 car bomb attempt in New York’s Times Square.

August 23: A US Federal Court sentenced Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national, to 86 years in prison for the attempted murder of US officers in Afghanistan. Aafia, 38, a neuroscientist trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty by the US court of grabbing a rifle at an Afghan Police station in the town of Ghazni where she was being interrogated in July 2008 and trying to gun down a group of US servicemen. Siddiqui featured on a 2004 US list of people suspected of al Qaeda links.

July 7: Al Qaeda’s top leadership in Pakistan directed confessed agent Najibullah Zazi in his plot to bomb the New York subway, US officials said. In an indictment against five alleged terrorists, the US Justice Department revealed Zazi’s plan was "directly related to a scheme by al Qaeda plotters in Pakistan to use Western operatives to attack a target in the UK". Earlier this year 2010, Zazi pleaded guilty to the three charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to the al Qaeda. He had told the federal court in Brooklyn in February that the plans to blow up New York targets just after the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks included "mortal operations" in the underground train system.

June 24: Five American nationals alleged to have been involved in terrorist activities were convicted by ATC Special Judge Mian Anwar Nazir in Sargodha in Punjab. They were sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison and fined PNR 70,000 each. The judge handed down two prison terms for each person, one for 10 years on a criminal conspiracy charge, and the other for five years on the charge of funding banned outfits. The terms are to be served concurrently. The convicts, Rami Zamzam, Ahmed Manni, Aman Abdullah, Umar Farooq and Waqar Hussain were acquitted of three charges, including planning to wage war against the US and Afghanistan. Earlier, the court had acquitted one of the accused Khalid Farooq, the father of Umar Farooq convicted in the same case. Meanwhile, it has emerged that the five Americans were actually hired by Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the Ameer of the Al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani jehadi group HuJI.

June 21: Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American terror suspect accused in the failed New York car bombing case, pleaded guilty. Faisal Shahzad entered the plea in US District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carry mandatory life sentences. He pleaded guilty to them all and warned of further terrorist attacks in unless US left the Muslim lands alone.

June 18: Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistan-born American national arrested over the botched car bombing in New York’s Times Square, was formally charged with 10 terrorism and weapons counts including attempted use of weapon of mass destruction. The charges included attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, attempted use of a destructive device in a terrorist conspiracy and other conspiracy, explosives and weapons related charges.

June 9: A Pakistani-born American man accused of providing support for Al-Qaeda's efforts to combat US forces in Afghanistan was sentenced on June 9 to 15 years in prison. A Justice Department statement said Syed Hashmi (30), who pleaded guilty on April 27 to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to the terror network, received the maximum sentence under law from US District Chief Judge Loretta Preska. Hashmi, born in Pakistan and educated in New York, was accused of letting a terrorism suspect stay in his student apartment in London and allowing the man to use his cell phone to call other suspects.

May 28: A Pakistani college student, Adnan Babar Mirza (33), living in Texas was convicted of conspiring to help the Taliban and fight US troops. A federal jury convicted Adnan Babar Mirza of two conspiracy counts and seven firearms violations after a three-day trial held in Houston. He faces up to five years in prison on each conspiracy count and 10 years on the weapons counts when he is sentenced on September 10, 2009. Mirza, who remains in federal custody, was one of four men arrested in 2006 for alleged participation in paramilitary training exercises at campsites around the Houston area so they could engage in a "holy war". Mirza’s attorney, David Adler, told jurors that Mirza went on camping trips but denied they involved paramilitary training exercises. Prosecutor Jim McAlister told jurors that the activities of Mirza and the other three men came to authorities’ attention after another of their friends, James Coates, decided, "things were getting out of hand" and became an FBI informant. Mirza claimed Coates was the one who was militant and promoted violence. An undercover officer taped conversations with Mirza and the other men in which they allegedly talked about ambushing US soldiers and triggering a bomb with a cell phone, according to court documents. FBI Special Agent John McKinley, the prosecution’s first witness, told jurors that Mirza can be heard on the taped conversations talking about sending money to support Taliban families. Prosecutors have said Mirza collected about $900 for Taliban fighters and their families. Prosecutors also said Mirza, who was attending Houston Community College, was in the country illegally because he violated his student visa by working. The three other men who were arrested have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Kobie Diallo Williams, a US citizen, was sentenced four and a half years in prison for conspiring to join the Taliban and fight against US forces. Syed Maaz Shah, a former Pakistani engineering student at the University of Texas at Dallas, was sentenced in 2007 to six and a half years in prison on federal firearms charges. Shiraz Syed Qazi, also a Pakistani student and Mirza’s cousin, received a 10-month prison sentence in 2007 on a firearms charge.

May 16: A Pakistani national detained with suspicious chemical residues at the US Embassy in Chile was set free. Mohammad Saif-ur-Rehman Khan was ordered to stay in Chile and check in with authorities once a week. Prosecutors have three more months to develop their case, Judge Maria Carolina Herrera ruled. Defence attorney Gabriel Carrion said the judge declined to charge Saif with associating with terrorists for lack of evidence.

May 11: A Pakistani national, identified as Mauhannas Saifur Rehnab Khan, was arrested after traces of explosives were detected on his body and belongings during a visit to the US embassy in Santiago, the capital of Chile. Experts found traces of a TNT explosive derivative on the 28-year-old suspect’s hands, cell phone, bag and documentation after he went through a security checkpoint, prompting the embassy staff to notify the Police. However, Saif Khan said he did not know where the traces had come from and that he was only at the embassy to renew his visa. The US Ambassador to Chile, Paul Simons, said that the affair was in the hands of Chilean lawyers. Chilean prosecutor Mario Schilling said that a probe was underway after the Police interrogated the man and raided his home. Mauhannas arrived in Chile around three months ago on a visa and had sought work at a hotel in the capital and to practise his fluency in Spanish language. The Chilean authorities said that they extended Pakistani national’s detention for five days. His detention was being extended under anti-terror laws, the authorities said.

May 5: The Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, confessed of his involvement and is cooperating with investigators who are seeking details about his contacts in Pakistan, postponing indefinitely any court appearance, said law-enforcement sources. The focus of investigations shifted to Pakistan and a US FBI team visited Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to gather evidence. Faisal Shahzad (30) stands formally charged with five terrorism-related counts, and faces life in prison if convicted. He was not yet assigned a defence lawyer and no court appearance has been scheduled, said a law-enforcement source. Shahzad accepted that the TTP financed Shahzad’s training in bomb making, the law enforcement source added. Pakistani officials said several of Shahzad’s relatives were arrested in Pakistan after he was removed from the plane.

May 4: The Law-enforcement officials arrested the Pakistani-born US citizen, Faisal Shahzad (30), suspected in the failed attempt to explode a bomb-laden car in Times Square of New York on May 2. Faisal Shahzad was arrested late on May 3 aboard a flight that was headed to the Middle East. US authorities brought terrorism and weapons of mass destruction charges against him on May 4.

May 2: An Internet video purportedly from Pakistani Taliban group, TTP, claimed responsibility for the car bomb attempt in Times Square in New York, the US monitoring service SITE said. Posted on YouTube, the video said the attempted bombing was in revenge for the recent killing of two top al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq, US drone strikes in Pakistan and US treatment of a Pakistani neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, SITE said. "Congratulations to the Muslim Ummah (world) on the jaw-breaking blow to Satan’s USA. We, Tehreek-e-Taliban, with all the Pride and Bravery, TAKE full responsibility for the RECENT ATTACK IN THE USA," an English message on the video said. The group said the attempted attack was to avenge the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayub al-Masri, the top two leaders of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, in an air and ground assault in April near the city of Tikrit, SITE added. It also said it was in revenge for "the recent rain of drone attacks in the tribal areas and the abduction, torture and humiliation of our most respected & innocent sister Dr. Aafia Siddiqui."

April 6: A Pakistan-born Chicago cab driver on April 5 pleaded not guilty to charges that he attempted to aid al Qaeda by sending money to Ilyas Kashmiri, a terrorist leader believed to be in Pakistan, reports IANS. Raja Lahrasib Khan (56), a naturalised American citizen, appeared briefly before US District Judge James B. Zagel to enter his not guilty plea then returned to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre where he is being held without bond at Government request. The judge set May 5 as the date for next hearing. Khan claims to have known HuJI ‘chief’ Ilyas Kashmiri for 15 years. Kashmiri in turn is linked with Mumbai terror suspect David Coleman Headley.

February 24: A Taliban 'commander', Mohammed Qari Zafar, wanted in connection with the 2006 bombing of the US consulate in Karachi, was among 13 persons killed in a suspected missile strike in the Dargah Mandi area of North Waziristan of FATA near the border with Afghanistan.

February 8: Police arrested six suspected militants, including a would-be suicide bomber who was allegedly plotting to attack a five-star hotel and kill US nationals, from Grand Trunk Road in Shahdara area of Lahore.

February 3: Three US troopers and four female students were among nine persons killed when a blast targeted a military-led convoy in Lower Dir of NWFP. At least 115 persons, including 95 schoolgirls, were also injured in the attack. The TTP claimed responsibility for the bomb attack that killed three US troopers, a spokesman for the network claimed in a telephone call.

February 2: Al-Qaida can be expected to attempt an attack on the US in the next three to six months, senior US intelligence officials told Congress.

January 24: Taliban militants claimed to have shot down a US drone in Hamzoni village near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. Government and Military officials confirmed the plane crash but were not sure about the cause of the incident.

2009

December 15: One Pakistan origin American national, Syed Haris Ahmed (25) of Atlanta, and one Bangladesh origin American national, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee (23) of Georgia, were sentenced to 13 and 17 years in prison respectively by a United States court, for their link to Pakistan-based LeT and JeM and providing them with material aid and support for attacks in the U.S. and abroad, according to The Hindu. District Judge William Duffey Junior of Federal Court in Atlanta sentenced Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, following their convictions in 2009 in separate but related criminal trials. Like David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, Sadequee and Ahmed too were in contact with the LeT and the JeM. However unlike Headley, who sent video footage and photographs of possible LeT targets in India, Sadeequee and Ahmed sent video clips of possible LeT targets in the US. "This is not about your faith," Judge Duffey Junior. told them. "This is about your conduct. This is about the rule of law in this country that you have decided does not apply to you."

December 8: The United Sates intelligence personnel stationed in Pakistan are trying to ascertain whether Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, a retired major of the Pakistan Army, who has recently been named by the FBI as a key link between the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack suspect David Headley and his LeT handlers, is the brother-in-law of Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the absconding Ameer of the pro-Taliban Pakistani Jehadi outfit HuJI. Rehman has been charged in a Chicago court by the FBI on allegations of conspiring terrorist attacks in association with Headley, a US national of Pakistani-origin, who is already in the FBI’s custody. According to diplomatic circles in Islamabad, the United Sates intelligence personnel are trying to determine if Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed is the same person who had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on October 12, 2004, challenging the arrest of Qari Saifullah Akhtar and seeking his production in the apex court. The petitioner had also sought a court order to prevent possible deportation of Qari Saifullah, his brother-in-law, to another country. The petition was thrown out on January 18, 2005. Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the Ameer (chief) of the Pakistan chapter of the HUJI, who had been arrested in 1995 for conspiring to topple the second Government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had been named by the slain PPP leader in her posthumous book -- Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West - as a principal suspect in the October 18, 2007 attempt on her life in Karachi.

November 24: Five Pakistani Army officers have been detained for questioning over possible links to the two US terror suspects of the LeT, who are accused of plotting an armed attack on a Danish newspaper, intelligence officials said. LeT militants, David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, were arrested in Chicago during October 2009. US prosecutors said the two men were believed to be working with an unidentified senior member of the outfit and a senior Al Qaeda operative. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said phone records showed the five Pakistani officers had contacted Headley and Rana. They say the five include a retired brigadier general and two active lieutenant colonels, but did not provide more details.

October 30: Pakistan’s Consul General in Chicago personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, arrested by the FBI for planning to carry out a major terrorist attack in India at the behest of the LeT, the US authorities have claimed, according to Times of India. The FBI in its revised charge-sheet filed before a Chicago court said the Consul General of Pakistan in Chicago personally knows both Rana and Headley a.k.a. Daood Gilani, as all three of them are from the same high school. According to the Website of the Pakistan Embassy in US, Dr Aman Rashid is the Consul General in Chicago. "On or about September 25, 2009, Rana spoke by telephone with the Consul General at the Pakistani Consulate in Chicago in an effort to obtain a five-year visa for Headley to travel to Pakistan. It is clear from the email traffic unrelated to terrorist plotting that the Consul General knows Rana and Headley personally as all three attended the same high school," the FBI claimed. However, the affidavit, does not say anything if the Consul General was aware or had any inclination of the terrorist connection of Rana and Headley. Rana (48) and Headley (49) are residents of Chicago and also alumni of the same military school.

October 27: US investigating agencies have neutralised a plot by the Pakistan-based LeT to use an American national for terrorist attacks in Denmark and India. The man, identified as David Coleman Headley, was one of two suspects arrested early in October 2009 by FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before he boarded a flight to Philadelphia, from where he was intending to travel to Pakistan to meet Pakistani terrorist handlers, including the fugitive Ilyas Kashmiri. Headley's partner in the terror plot, which included plans to attack the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, was a Pakistani-Canadian named Tahawwur Hussain Rana, also a resident of Chicago who was arrested by the FBI on October 18.

2008

No incidents

2007

September 4: Three suspected Islamic militants were arrested in the afternoon for allegedly plotting attacks on Ramstein Air Base, a key U.S. and NATO military hub, and Frankfurt International Airport, one of Europe's busiest, German authorities said on September 5, according to an AP report. The Sudwestrundfunk public broadcaster, citing unnamed security officials, reported that two suspects had German citizenship while the third was Pakistani. Authorities closed in on the men after they were seen moving possibly dangerous chemicals, the Der Spiegel reported, citing unidentified investigators.

July 26: More than a dozen Muslims, including at least one Pakistani and several US citizens of Pakistani-origin, have been sentenced to imprisonment for their association with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and for conspiracy to wage jihad against India, according to Dawn. A statement issued by the US Department of Justice on July 25 noted that the State Department designated LeT a terrorist organisation in December 2001. Although one of the convicts, 32-year old Sabri Benkahla, of Falls Church, Virginia, became a state witness, he too was sentenced this week to 121 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay a $17,500 fine. He was found guilty of perjury before the grand jury and of making false official statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including his denial of involvement with an overseas jihad training camp in 1999, as well as his asserted lack of knowledge about individuals with whom he was in contact.

Most of the convicts attended the Dar al Arqam Islamic Centre in Falls Church, Virginia. In June 2003, Benkahla and 10 others were indicted by a grand jury in Alexandria for conspiring to attack Indian troops in Kashmir and the Russians in Chechnya in the course of training for jihad in Virginia and Pakistan. Among the defendants, Masaud Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Randall Royer, Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, Muhammed Aatique, Yong Kwon, and Khwaja Hasan, were alleged to have attended jihad training camps operated by the LeT in 2000 and 2001. In September 2003, Khan and Royer were charged with conspiring to wage war against the United States, aid the Taliban, aid al Qaeda, and Khan, Royer, Chapman, and Hammad Abdur-Raheem were charged with providing assistance to the LeT.

May 28: A Pakistan-born US national accused of supplying military equipment to al Qaeda was extradited to the US on May 25, AFP reported. Syed Hashmi, aged 27, now faces a trial in the US over allegations that he was a "quartermaster" and supplied al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Syed Hashmi, an American national, has been extradited this evening from Gatwick airport to America," said a spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police. Hashmi, who was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport in June 2006 as he boarded a flight to Pakistan, came to Britain on a student visa in 2003 and joined the Islamist group al Muhajiroun, which has now been disbanded. His extradition warrant alleged that he had received "military gear" for use in committing terrorist acts between January and March 2004. The United States District Court for the southern district of New York indicted him.

April 4: A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, US and Pakistani intelligence sources told ABC News reporters Brian Ross and Christopher Isham. The group, called Jundullah, is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Balochistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. The group has taken responsibility for the deaths and kidnappings of more than a dozen Iranian soldiers and officials. US officials said US relationship with Jundullah is arranged so that US provides no funding to the group, which would require an official presidential order or "finding" as well as Congressional oversight. Tribal sources told ABC News that money for Jundullah is funneled to its youthful leader, Abd el Malik Regi, through Iranian exiles who have connections with European and Gulf states. Jundullah has produced its own videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured and brought back to Pakistan.

2006

November 30: A 29-year old Pakistani, with an expired student visa, and a US citizen were charged in Texas with conspiring to train with firearms to fight with the Taliban against coalition forces in the Middle East and providing $350 to support terrorist groups, according to Daily Times. The detained Pakistani was identified as Adnan Babar Mirza, while the 33-year old American has been identified as Kobie Diallo Williams a.k.a. Abdul Kabeer. The four-count indictment was returned by a Houston grand jury on November 22 and unsealed this week after the appearance of both men before a US magistrate judge. "While these subjects did not operate at a high level of sophistication in comparison with the 9/11 hijackers, the expressed goal was to aid the Taliban by training for jihad against coalition troops in the Middle East," according to FBI Special Agent Roderick Beverly.

According to allegations in the indictment, Williams and Mirza, a citizen of Pakistan who entered the US on a student visa on August 15, 2001, viewed the US and coalition military forces on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq as invaders, and in April 2005, agreed that they should travel to the Middle East to fight with the Taliban to engage in battlefield Jihad. To hone their skills in anticipation for battlefield Jihad, the indictment alleged that Williams and Mirza agreed to train with firearms at various locations.

August 2: US intelligence agency expert told a US court in the last week of July 2006 that Pakistan is still running a terrorist training camp at Balakot in the North West Frontier Province, according to Dawn. Eric Benn, a terrorism expert for Defence Intelligence Agency, told the district court in California that there was 70 per cent ‘probability’ the satellite images of a place near Balakot were that of a militant training camp. The US intelligence agent showed the jury satellite images taken between 2001 and 2004 but he claimed that the facility in question seemed to have expanded since then. "It may have become less temporary and more permanent," he testified. The images showed a 3km trail linked to the main road and dotted with several structures that seemed to reflect a guard house, barracks with a tin roof and perhaps some mud houses as well, the reports said. The court is hearing terrorism charges against two Pakistani-Americans, 23-year old Hamid Hayat and his father Umer Hayat. Hamid’s sentencing has been postponed by four months to November and his father Umer Hayat, charged with lying to federal authorities, is being retried after the first round ended in a hung jury.

June 30: Afghan officials claimed on June 29 that they had captured two Pakistanis who were part of a 20-member team that entered southern Afghanistan to carry out suicide attacks. Two other men from the same group were killed a day earlier when they detonated a car bomb near a US-led coalition convoy in southern Zabul province, while 16 other Pakistani nationals were still at large, a police official said.

June 7: A federal jury in the United States of America convicted a Maryland man of plotting to assist the Pakistan-based outlawed group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), according to The News. Ali Asad Chandia, aged 29, was found guilty on three counts of terrorism-related charges, including providing material support to the LeT, which is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US Government. Prosecutors linked Chandia, who lives in College Park, Maryland, to a British national, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses in a British court. The US Department of Justice said in a statement the case, which included evidence from British authorities and testimony from British investigators, showed the importance of cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies.

April 27: A Pakistani-American man was found guilty in a California court on April 25 of undergoing Al Qaeda training just hours after a mistrial was declared in his father’s trial in the same case. Jurors declared Hamid Hayat guilty of providing "material support" to the enemy by training in Pakistan as a terrorist and of lying about it to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, according to the US Attorney’s Office. "Since the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, the number one priority of the Department (of Justice) has been to detect, disrupt and prevent terrorist acts," said US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. "In this particular case, justice has been served against a man who supported and trained with our terrorist enemies in pursuit of his goal of violent jihad." Hayat faces up to 39 years in prison and is to be sentenced on July 14, according to Dawn. The verdict came just hours after the judge in the Sacramento, California district court dismissed a separate panel of jurors who couldn’t agree whether Hayat’s father, Umer, lied to the FBI about his son attending an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan. Hamid Hayat, 23, trained with terrorists in Pakistan and planned an attack in the United States, Assistant US Attorney Laura Ferris argued at his trial.

April 26: A police informer told a US Federal District court in Brooklyn on April 24 that a Pakistani immigrant, angered by the war in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, wanted to punish Americans in 2004 by bombing one of New York City’s busiest subway stations, according to Dawn. The Pakistani, Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, and alleged co-conspirator James Elshafay were arrested on August 27, 2004 on the eve of the Republican National convention. They drew diagrams of the subway station before being arrested, the New York City’s Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said shortly after their arrests that the men never obtained explosives and had not been linked to known terrorist groups. The informant Osama Eldawoody, an Egyptian national, told the court that Siraj vowed to "teach these people a lesson".

April 3: A Pakistani man was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for his role in a plot to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, AP reported. Muhamed Abid Afridi reportedly pleaded guilty in federal court in March 2004 to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish. Two other men pleaded guilty to the same charges. Sentencing for Syed Mustajab Shah, also from Pakistan, is set for June 19, 2006. Ilyas Ali, a naturalised US citizen born in India, is to be sentenced on April 10, 2006. Afridi admitted that he tried to sell five tonnes of hashish and a half-tonne of heroin to undercover US law enforcement officials in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to members of the Taliban.

March 16: The US State Department has sought confirmation from Pakistan of the arrest of an Al Qaeda leader believed to be the mastermind of the Madrid bombings in March 2004, according to Daily Times. CNN and NBC News reported in November 2005 that Mustafa Setmariam Nasar was captured after a gun battle in a remote area of Kohat in the North West Frontier Province. CNN also reported that one of Nasar’s aides was killed in the incident. Sources in the Interior Ministry told Daily Times on March 15 that the State Department recently sent a letter to Federal Investigation Agency Director General Tariq Pervez through the US Embassy in Islamabad, seeking information about Nasar’s arrest. The letter, referring to various reports in the American and Spanish media about the arrest, asks the Pakistan Government to confirm whether the Syrian fugitive was being held in Pakistan and inquires about his latest status. Syrian-born Nasar is considered the mastermind of the Madrid bombings, a series of coordinated attacks on March 11, 2004, which killed 192 people and wounded 2,050. The US State Department announced a $5 million reward for Nasar’s capture in July 2005, saying that he was believed to have fled either to Iraq or Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

December 17: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States acknowledged on December 15 that "remnants" of the Taliban and Al Qaeda continue to operate in Afghanistan and his country’s border, but insisted they are not resurging significantly. In an interview with Reuters, Jehangir Karamat claimed Osama bin Laden has lost effectiveness, that his Al Qaeda organization has no overarching leadership capable of directing attacks worldwide and that it would be unwise to become "obsessed" with capturing him.

November 16: Pakistan continues to be a sanctuary and training ground for terrorists, a report on the status of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission on terrorist attacks in the US has said, asking Washington to put pressure on Islamabad to counter terrorism. "Pakistan remains a sanctuary and training ground for terrorists," said a report by Vice-Chairman Lee Hamilton of the 9-11 Public Disclosure Project, which examined action taken by US administration on the recommendations of the Commission that probed the September 11, 2001, attacks. "(Pakistan President Pervez) Musharraf has made significant efforts to take on the threat from extremism... yet we are disappointed that he has not done more," said the former Congressman, pointing out that Gen. Musharraf has not lived up to his promises to regulate the Madrassas properly.

October 19: A Pakistani and three Americans have been charged with plotting terrorist attacks on military facilities and synagogues in the United States, according to Dawn. Pakistani national, Hammad Riaz Samana, and three American-born Muslim converts, Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson and Kevin James, have been accused of conspiring to wage war against the US Government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials. Their trial will start on October 24 in a California court. Prosecutors contend the plot was orchestrated by Washington, Patterson and Samana at the behest of James -— an inmate at the California State Prison, Sacramento — who allegedly founded the radical group Jamiyyat ul-Islam-us-Saheeh.

September 24: US prosecutors on September 22 reportedly charged a California Muslim of Pakistani origin with providing material support for terrorists by attending an Al Qaeda-linked training camp. According to Dawn, Hamid Hayat was charged in an indictment with offering himself as personnel for Jehadi training in Pakistan and then returning to the United States to wage Jehad, federal prosecutors said. The suspect attended a camp with "ties to Al Qaeda" between March 2003 and June 2005 where he received training in "physical fitness, firearms, and means to wage jihad," prosecutors from the California capital of Sacramento said. Hamid allegedly admitted in a June 4 interview that he had attended a camp in Pakistan for three to six months "to teach people to kill those who work against Muslims" and receive training in weapons, explosives and hand to hand combat.

September 16: US authorities said that they arrested a man on charges of providing support to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a designated terrorist organisation in the United States, according to The News. Ali Asad Chandia was arrested a day earlier at College Park in the Maryland suburbs, said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher in a statement. Chandia and a British national, Mohammed Ajmal Khan, face a four-count indictment on charges of providing support to the LeT. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Khan, who has been detained in Britain, is believed to be a top recruiter for the LeT and Fisher’s statement said Chandia and Khan met during late 2001 in Pakistan.

August 17: A Pakistani has been arrested as part of a probe into a possible terrorist plot targeting Southern California locations, the Los Angles Times reported on August 16. Twenty-one year old Hamad Riaz Samana of Los Angeles was detained last week as part of an investigation that began with the arrest of two men in Torrance suspected of robbing gas stations, the newspaper reported.

August 9: A judge in San Francisco is reported to have refused bail for a Pakistani Imam (priest), Shabbir Ahmed, detained in a terrorism-related probe. Shabbir Ahmed is "both a flight risk and a danger to the community," Judge Anthony Murry said after a four-hour hearing, according to media reports. Ahmed, a citizen of Pakistan, is accused of violating the terms of his religious-worker visa and is fighting deportation to Pakistan, according to San Francisco Chronicle. FBI lead case agent Gary Schaaf said in testimony that Shabbir Ahmed and others wanted to form a Lodi religious school where individuals will be taught a very conservative brand of Islam, and students will be spotted and assessed to commit violence. The 39-year old Ahmed was arrested in June 2005 on immigration charges along with Mohammad Adil Khan, who was leading the effort to build a Muslim school in Lodi, as well as Khan's son. Adil Khan and his son agreed in July 2005 to be deported to Pakistan rather than fight the charges.

August 7: The Pakistani Government is deceiving the US and the West by helping militants freely enter Afghanistan from Waziristan, said Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Secretary General, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He told a press conference in Lahore that the Government should give the identity of the infiltrators and its (government's) motives for helping them enter Afghanistan. "They must also give the nation the identities of the men being moved from Waziristan to militant camps in Mansehra. This is hypocrisy. The rulers are not only trying to deceive the US and the West, but also hoodwinking the entire nation," he claimed.

August 6: A Maryland resident, Mahmud Faruq Brent alias Mahmud Al Mutazzim, was arrested on August 5, 2005 in Newark, New Jersey, and charged with conspiring to aid terrorism by training to become a Jihadi fighter in camps in Pakistan, said a report in New York Times. Brent was accused of traveling to Pakistan after 9/11 to receive training in camps operated by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the report said. Brent was an associate of Tarik Shah, a New York jazz musician who was arrested on May 28 on terrorism charges, according to the newspaper. Brent, in telephone calls and at least one meeting, had described his stay in the camps to Shah. He had also told Shah that he had been in the mountains in Pakistan training with "the Mujahideen, the fighters."

June 20: According to Daily Times, Afghan intelligence officials have foiled a plot to assassinate the former US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and arrested three Pakistanis armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles. An Afghan presidential spokesperson said that the men were arrested from Laghman province a day earlier. Afghan television is reported to have subsequently broadcast a video of the suspects identifying them as Murat Khan, Noor Alam, and Zahid. While two of them claimed they came from Peshawar, the other said he was from Mansehra.

June 18: The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, suggests that the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has been hiding in Pakistan and criticised Islamabad’s failure to act against Taliban leaders. In an interview with Afghanistan’s Aina Television, Khalilzad said that a Pakistani TV channel had interviewed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders. "If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country, which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces, not find them," Khalilzad said. "Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders should have been in Pakistan," he added.

June 10: An investigation into an Al Qaeda cell in the US city of Lodi, California, in which a man and his son and two Muslim religious leaders were held earlier, led to the arrest on June 8 of another Pakistani, Mohammad Hassan Adil. A US immigration and customs enforcement official said Adil, was detained for violation of immigration rules. He is son of Mohammed Adil Khan, who was recently taken into custody along with Lodi mosque Imam Shabbir Ahmed under same charges.

June 9: According to Daily Times, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested a father and son of Pakistani origin in the Californian town of Lodi for their alleged links to the Al Qaeda. Both were American citizens and along with them two other Pakistanis, one an Imam (priest) of the local mosque and the other his likely successor, were arrested on immigration charges. Umer Hayat, an ice cream truck driver had migrated from Pakistan, but his son Hamid Hayat was born in the United States and a FBI official said "the Hayats have been on the radar for a while and this case has more to it than just these two guys."

May 16: Afghan guerrillas are still launching attacks from the safety of Pakistan despite the Pakistani military’s battle against Islamist terrorists, said a US army officer. "My base, where I live, is in Khost province, and I will say, absolutely, there are insurgents coming across the border from Pakistan attacking into Khost, then returning back into Pakistan," Colonel Gary Cheek told a news conference. Cheek is commander of approximately 4,000 US-led troops in 16 eastern Afghan provinces, including Khost, according to Reuters.

May 4: A leader from the defunct Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Tariq Javed, is arrested in New York, according to New York Post. Javed was seen snapping photos last year of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges in New York city and was arrested for allegedly lying on his immigration papers about his terror links, the paper quoted officials as saying. He had declared jihad against Americans, according to the complaint issued by Manhattan US Attorney David Kelly.

April 28: According to Dawn, a local Muslim scholar has been convicted of encouraging his followers to join the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and to do Jehad against the United States. Ali Tamimi of Fairfax County faces a mandatory life imprisonment for preaching Jehad soon after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Tamimi was reportedly convicted of inspiring a group of his Northern Virginia followers to attend terrorist training camps abroad and to prepare to battle American troops. The prosecution claimed that many of his followers practiced for Jehad by playing paintball in the Virginia countryside while some others trained with the LeT.

March 19: Terrorists in Pakistan remain committed to attacking US targets and it is a matter of time before the Al Qaeda or another group uses chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director, Porter J. Goss, on March 18, reported Daily Times. He said this while talking to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in his first public appearance as the Director.

Three senior Taliban officials, arrested in Pakistan, have reportedly been handed over to the US military at the Bagram base in Afghanistan. The Pajhwok Afghan News agency quoted an Afghan intelligence source as saying that the officials in the US custody were Maulvi Mohammad Taha, former Nangarhar Province chief of police, Mulla Abdul Razzaq, Taliban’s top military commander and Syed Akbar Agha, leader of a Taliban splinter faction, Jaish-e-Muslimeen. The Kabul-based news agency said Agha was suspected of being involved in the abduction of three United Nations elections workers in Kabul during October 2004.

February 12: Farhat Paracha, wife of Pakistani businessman Saifullah Paracha who has been held captive at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for the past 19 months by the US authorities for his suspected terrorist ties with Al Qaeda, disclosed on February 11 that her husband had met Osama bin Laden twice. Speaking at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club, she, however, denied that Saifullah had any links with terrorism. She claimed that as the head of a 65-member business delegation, Saifullah went to Afghanistan and had business meetings with a small number of people there, but he had nothing to do with the charges framed against him by the US administration.

February 7: According to Time magazine, a recent investigation has revealed that Pakistan’s A Q Khan network played a larger role in helping Iran and North Korea acquire material for a nuclear bomb. According to US intelligence officials, the magazine said, Khan sold North Korea much of the necessary material to build a nuclear bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them. They, along with officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also believe that Iran may have bought the same set of goods — centrifuges and possibly weapons designs — from Khan in the mid-1990s. The IAEA investigators have revealed that Iran privately confirmed at least 13 meetings (from 1994 to 1999) with representatives of the Khan network. "Nothing has changed… The hardware is still available, and the network hasn’t stopped," Time quoted one of Khan’s former aides as saying.

January 25: A top Al Qaeda operative from Tanzania was handed over to US authorities shortly after his arrest in Pakistan last July, stated a senior intelligence official. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa that killed more than 200 people, was arrested after a shootout in Gujarat on July 27, 2004. "A week after the arrest, he was handed over to the Americans," a senior intelligence official said. However, no senior government official has confirmed if Pakistan had handed over Ghailani to the US authorities last year.

2004

September 28: The News, quoting unnamed western diplomatic sources, said that some valuable ‘Arab targets’ do exist in the Pakistani tribal areas, including Abu Faraj al Libbi, who is believed to be head of the Al Qaeda operations in the country. These sources believe that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had gathered valuable evidence through satellite images and radio equipment that suggested presence of some of the most-wanted men there.

September 27: Al Qaeda is helping Taliban terrorists to disrupt the presidential elections in Afghanistan, says the US Commander of the coalition forces in the country, Lt. Gen. David Barno. Gen. Barno said in the Afghan capital Kabul that most of the network’s operatives were in Pakistan and it was more likely that key figures such as Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahri were there instead of Afghanistan. Barno also said it would take time to assess whether this year’s Pakistani intelligence breakthroughs against Al Qaeda would lead to bin Laden, Zawahri or Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.

September 20: The senior leadership of Al Qaeda could be hiding in the tribal area near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, says a US military spokesperson. "The borders remain very porous between both countries, is it possible that senior leadership of Al Qaeda is hiding... in Pakistan or Afghanistan," said Major Scott Nelson during a news briefing in Kabul

August 28: Daily Times reported that a Pakistani national and a US citizen were arrested over an alleged plot to blow up a subway station in New York. City police commissioner Raymond Kelly said that "it is clear they had the intention to cause damage and kill people". But he said there was no immediate evidence that they were connected to Al Qaeda or any international terrorist groups.

August 11: Four Turkish nationals are reported to have been arrested from Lahore over the weekend for suspected links to the Al Qaeda. While their identities were not officially disclosed, The Nation reported that two of them were ‘diehard’ operatives of Al Qaeda and fought with the Taliban against US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

A Pakistani man, arrested from Long Island in New York, has reportedly admitted to smuggling money, night vision goggles and other military gear to a senior Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a report in the New York Times said on August 11. Mohammed Junaid Babar allegedly made the confessions to the Federal District Court in Manhattan on June 3, 2004. He pleaded guilty to five counts of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, according to a transcript of the court proceedings made public on August 10, the report said.

July 29: Pakistan disclosed that it had arrested a senior Al Qaeda terrorist wanted for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat identified the man as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani and said he was a Tanzanian national carrying a head money of $25 million. The Minister stated Ghailani was one of the 12 persons arrested on July 27 when security forces raided a suspected terrorist hideout in the city of Gujarat, about 175 km southeast of the capital Islamabad.

June 29: Taliban-led terrorists are still launching operations against American and other forces from safe havens in Pakistan, said US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. While stating that a Pakistani military operation in South Waziristan during this month in which at least 100 foreign terrorists and allied tribesmen were killed "really has disrupted" Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives there, he added there were other areas of Pakistan from which Taliban crossed into Afghanistan. "In that regard, there hasn’t been any change. They’ve dealt with part of the problem, but the problem is obviously larger than that," said the Ambassador.

June 16: A US court sentences three persons for conspiring to aid the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Federal Judge Leonie M Brinkema imposed life imprisonment on Masood Khan, an 85-year term on Seifullah Chapman and a 97-month sentence for Abdur Raheem. All three were members of the 'Virginia jihad network'. Judge Brinkema said she was bound by federal sentencing guidelines that imposed mandatory multi-year terms on Chapman and Khan for weapons counts, but she found them "appalling" and urged the prosecutor to request reductions. US Attorney Paul J McNulty, in a statement, said the sentences "are appropriate and reflect the seriousness of the offences." The 11 defendants in the case, most of them reportedly hailing from the Washington suburbs, were indicted in June 2003 on weapons counts and charges of training with the LeT. Khan and another defendant were also charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Al Qaeda and Taliban.

May 27: According to Daily Times, the US-educated Pakistani woman who is among seven "dangerous" Al Qaeda suspects identified on May 26 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was already in the custody of US intelligence agencies for the last one year. Aafia Siddiqui, reportedly an award-winning Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student, according to intelligence sources had come to Pakistan in January 2003 and stayed with her friend in Islamabad for a few days and later went to Karachi to see her mother. Immediately after landing at Karachi airport she was detained by intelligence personnel and later handed over to the FBI.

May 26: A Pakistani woman with a doctorate in neurological science is reportedly among the seven "dangerous" Al Qaeda suspects identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as planners of new terrorist attacks on the United States. Like the other suspects, the 32-year old Aafia Siddiqui, once an award-winning Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student, has the ability to "undertake planning, facilitation and attack against the United States whether it be within the United States itself or overseas," FBI director Robert Mueller told a news conference in Washington. She is the only woman among the seven named on May 26 and whose photographs were posted on the FBI website, according to AFP.

May 25: Said Tayeb Jawad, Afghan Ambassador to the United States, reportedly said in Washington that the search for Osama bin Laden should be centred in Karachi or Quetta as the chances of his being found in an isolated area were negligible.

May 11: In a video posted on an Islamist militant website showing the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group said it is ‘ready to take on Pakistani soldiers on the borders with Afghanistan’, according to reports in The Associated Press. In the video, titled ‘Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American’, a masked man reads a statement with a message for President Pervez Musharraf. "Another message to the agent traitor Pervez Musharraf, we tell you that we are eager to meet your soldiers. By God, we seek them before the Americans and we will avenge the blood of our brothers in Wana and others," the masked man said.

May 4: According to Dawn, a group of alleged terrorists arrested in Turkey on suspicion of planning an attack on a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting were trained in Pakistan and were planning to carry out a suicide mission against US President George W. Bush. Turkish press reports said that the suspects were allegedly in possession of Turkish-subtitled video cassettes attributed to Osama bin Laden calling for a Jehad against America. They were allegedly planning to bomb the NATO Summit scheduled for June 28 and 29 in Istanbul where Bush and other world leaders will attend, according to police sources quoted by the papers. The suspects were arrested in the northwestern city of Bursa, though no dates were disclosed. The Hurriyet and Vatan newspapers said that several suspects underwent physical and psychological training in Pakistan to prepare them to carry out a suicide attack.

April 18: US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in Kabul that Al Qaeda, Taliban and Hizb-e-Islami elements were still in Pakistan and blamed them of cross-border terrorist activities. According to Khalilzad, "These elements attack the American forces, the Afghan forces and the NGOs working in Afghanistan… But it will not be good for Pakistan to become sanctuary for these people to plan, get training and come to Afghanistan with weapons." The envoy alleged that Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists were in the Baluchistan area around Quetta while individuals were also in cities like Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar.

March 21: Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, said in Kabul that the Taliban are still plotting attacks on Afghan and US targets from safe havens in Pakistan. "We know several key Taliban figures are there and there is some sense that some of the remaining Al Qaeda leaders are in the border area on the other side," said Khalizad.

March 4: Three American Muslims belonging to what the US Government calls a "Virginia jihad" were convicted of conspiracy to wage war on America and provide material support to the Taliban, charges that carry possible life imprisonment. US Attorney General John Ashcroft said in Washington that the convictions were handed down against Masoud Khan, Abdur Raheem and Seifulla Chapman in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, by Judge Leonie Brinkema. "The defendants convicted today were associates of Lashkar-e-Taiba," said Ashcroft.

February 28: According to Nation, the United States has handed over to Pakistan a list of 53 Al Qaeda suspects believed to be hiding in South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan. "The Bush administration has extended a list to Pakistani authorities which contain the names of 53 al-Qaeda suspects who, it said, have taken refuge in South Waziristan Agency. This US contention is based on intelligence reports gathered from Afghanistan that these suspected terrorists have sneaked into the Pakistani side a couple of months ago," the report indicated.

February 18: Zalmay Khalizad, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan, has reportedly charged that the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Gulbuddin Hikmatyar’s supporters keep "coming across from Pakistan" into Afghanistan. He was speaking by a satellite phone from Kabul to a conference on Afghanistan organised by the US Institute for Peace.

February 11: During a testimony before the House International Relations Committee, on President’s Budget Request for 2005, US Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated that Pakistan has arrested more than 500 Al Qaeda terrorists and members of the Taliban militia through support from President Musharraf, stronger border security measures and law-enforcement co-operation.

February 10: The Washington Times reported that the Al Qaeda is training hundreds of Islamist radicals in Pakistan and Kashmir to send them to "sleeper cells" in the US. Quoting unnamed American and foreign officials, the report said that at least 400 radicals have been trained or are in training in special camps, and many have already been routed through Europe to Muslim communities in US. US intelligence officials were quoted as saying that the camps operate in remote regions of western Pakistan and in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and are financed by various terrorist networks, including the Al Qaeda and sources in Saudi Arabia. Training camps in PoK were reportedly being operated by the Harkat-ul-Ansar and Lashkar-e-Toiba.

January 21: According to the Daily Times, members of the intelligence agencies raided a flat in a residential project in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar and arrested Walid bin Azmi, an Al Qaeda operative. Azmi is believed to be one of the four suspects involved in the bombing of US navy ship USS Cole on October 12, 2000.

2003

December 17: A Pakistani national, who received training to join the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, has reportedly been sentenced in the United States to 10 years and six months in prison. Mohammad Aatique, was the first to be sentenced among a group of 11 people indicted in Pennsylvania and Virginia in July 2003 for training with assault rifles. Aatique had entered into a plea bargain with the prosecution under which he pleaded guilty of going to Pakistan after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to train with the LeT. A US Federal Court in Pennsylvania on December 17 sentenced Aatique to the mandatory 10 years for firearms violations and six months for conspiring to violate the US Neutrality Act. Among the remaining suspects, three have pleaded guilty to weapons charges and the trial is expected to commence in February 2004.

December 10: After the recent suicide attacks in Turkey, the United States has asked the Government of Pakistan to add names of 15 more people to the consolidated list of people and entities belonging to Taliban and al-Qaeda, Dawn has learnt. The source said the government had been provided with the list endorsed by the United Nations and asked to freeze the assets of the people included in it, seal their offices and prevent their entry or transit. The 15 people to be added in the list are Al-Ayashi Radiabdul Al-Sami (Egypt), Cabullah (Somalia), Hamid M Tahir (Iraq), Mustafa Muhammad Amin (Iraq), M Daki (Morocco), Al-Sadi Furgh Hassan (Libya), Sadi Nasir (Tunisia), Ben Abdul Hakim (Tunisia), Reham Lutfi (Tunisia), Bouyahia Hamadi (Morocco), Rown lazher Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed (Tunisia), Zarkavi Imed Bin Maki (Tunisia), Murad Trablsi (Tunisia), Kamal Bin Mauldi (Tunisia) and Nauriddi Drissi (Tunisia).

October 16: The United States designates Pakistan-based Indian Mafia don Dawood Ibrahim as a global terrorist having links with the Al Qaeda and financing activities of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terrorist groups.

October 14: Karachi-based Al Akhtar Trust is designated as a Global Terrorist entity by the US Treasury.

October 8: US Federal prosecutors formally charge a Pakistani national with providing material support to the Al Qaeda, more than six months after his arrest in New York City.

September 15: Declassified US intelligence documents reportedly reveal that Pakistan helped Al Qaeda terrorists launch their operations in Afghanistan in the 1990s and also clandestinely ran a major training camp used by Osama Bin Laden's network.

August 8: US authorities charge Uzair Paracha, a Pakistani national, with conspiring to provide financial and other assistance to the Al Qaeda.

July 15: Suspected Al Qaeda terrorist, Adil Al-Jazeeri, arrested in June 2003, is handed over to American authorities in Peshawar.

June 27: Eight persons, accused of planning terrorist acts in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir, are arrested during a series of raids around the US Federal Capital of Washington, the US Justice Department said in a statement. Three other persons, reportedly living in Saudi Arabia, were also named in a 42-count Justice Department indictment. Initial appearances are to commence in the US Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia, before Judge Rawles Jones, said US Attorney Paul McNulty. The accused have been indicted on conspiracy, firearms and other charges for alleged roles in a conspiracy to train and participate in Jehad in Kashmir in support of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). They have also been accused of conspiring to prepare for and engage in Jehad in Chechnya, the Philippines and other countries. The group reportedly obtained AK-47 rifles and practiced small-unit military tactics in Virginia using paintball weapons and items to simulate actual combat in preparation for Jehad, said the Justice Department.

The indictment said that some of the defendants traveled to Pakistan and trained with the LeT, listed by the US among terrorist organisations. The suspects were arrested in the States of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, an unnamed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official said adding they were named as Randall Todd Royer; Yemeni national Ibrahim Ahmad al-Hamdi; Masood Ahmad Khan; naturalized US citizen Yong Ki Kwon; Pakistani national Muhammad Aatiq; Hammad Abdur-Raheem; Donald Thomas Surratt; and Caliph Basha Ibn Abdur Raheem. Three others - Khwaja Mahmood Hasan, a Pakistani-born US citizen; Sabri Benkhala; and Seifullah Chapman - are believed to be in Saudi Arabia.

June 5: Michael Evanoff, Regional Security Officer of the US Embassy in Islamabad told the Christian Science Monitor that, "This [Pakistan] is now the epicentre of terrorism. It really is. This is the only country I know in the world that has so many groups that are against the US or Western ideals. Last year alone, these groups pulled off seven strikes against the US community here, including a March church bombing in Islamabad that killed five - among them an American woman from the embassy and her daughter - and a June truck bomb at the Karachi consulate that killed 14 Pakistanis."

May 3: Police in Karachi arrest two Egyptian Al Qaeda suspects from Surjani Town and seized three AK-47 assault rifles, two TT pistols, two satellite phones, some transmitters and refined explosives from their possession. The two suspects, Abdul Khaliq Muhammad and Abi Abdullah, were reportedly planning to attack the US marines at Shahbaz airbase in Jacobabad, Miran Shah Airport and other sensitive installations in Gwadar.

May 2: Pakistani authorities handed over three Arab Al Qaeda suspects, including prime suspect in the October 2000-USS Cole bombing, Waleed Muhammad Bin Attash alias Khalid Al-Attash, to the US officials. Although the government did not officially confirm the extradition, an unnamed official was quoted as saying that "the foreigners including Al-Attash are not in our custody. They were handed over to the Americans." Bin Attash is a nephew of front ranking Al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, who was arrested on March 1, 2003, from Rawalpindi. Official sources claimed that Al-Attash and other suspects were not wanted by Pakistan in any criminal case and they were handed over to the US owing to the fact that the suspects were reportedly involved in terrorist acts aimed at the US establishments.

April 30: Eleven Al Qaeda suspects, including three Arabs, were arrested from different parts of Karachi. Police also seized a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives from their possession. An unnamed official was quoted as saying that the arrested men were reportedly planning to attack the US Consulate, American establishments and government installations. An Interior Ministry statement issued from Islamabad said "six suspects have been arrested which include Waleed Muhammad Bin Attash alias Khalid Al-Attash, a Yemeni national, who is suspected to be involved in the US Ship Cole incident." According to the statement, some 200 detonators, one wrist watch timer switch, five touch switches, capacitors of various types, 20 diodes, 46 transmitters, 20 variable controls, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades, pistols, ammunition and a truck load of sulphur, gunpowder and urea bags were recovered.

April 16: According to a media report, pamphlets urging Afghan refugees to wage Jehad against US forces and their "hireling" government in Afghanistan have been circulated at camps in northwest Pakistan. Entitled "Declaration by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" (IEA) the leaflets, written in Pushto, were distributed this week at refugee camps in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan. The erstwhile Taliban regime had ruled Afghanistan under the rubric of IEA, headed by Mullah Mohammad Omar. "Ulema, tribal leaders and Mujahideen of IEA call upon you to wage jihad against the hireling government in your motherland. It is your duty to rise...and direct your swords against the infidels and their puppets," said the leaflets.

April 3: Pakistani security agencies, in association with US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, arrested two suspected Al Qaeda operatives in Peshawar. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said the arrested "have been identified as Abdullah and Abdul Karim." Officials in Peshawar were quoted as saying that both came from Middle Eastern countries. They are also allegedly linked to the killing of Sher Nawaz Khan, an officer of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, in March 2003 at Wana, 180 miles south of Peshawar.

March 28: A Pakistani woman, who was on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) list for suspected links to the Al Qaeda, was arrested from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area in Karachi. According to a media report, Dr Aafia Siddiqui was allegedly working with the 'Chemical Wire Group' of the Al Qaeda. Recently, the FBI had placed the photograph of Aafia Siddiqui at its website stating "Although the FBI has no information indicating this individual is connected to specific terrorist activities, the FBI would like to locate and question this individual." As reported earlier, Aafia having a doctorate degree in neurological sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was living in Boston along with her spouse and three children. She is alleged to have provided logistical support to a Saudi Al Qaeda operative Adnan G El Shukrijumah.

March 15: Pakistani authorities arrested a leading Al Qaeda terrorist, Moroccan national Yasir al-Jaziri, in Lahore.

The arrest was based on information given by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of 9/11 attacks, who was arrested from Rawalpindi on March 1.

"He (al-Jaziri) is less important than Khalid Sheikh Mohammed but he is quite an important person," Secretary of the Interior Ministry Tasneem Noorani was quoted as saying.

Al-Jaziri is suspected to be involved in Al Qaeda's business operations and an unnamed official is quoted as describing him as an US-educated "computer whiz".

He had also played a significant role in disseminating audio and videotapes of Osama bin Laden to the media.

March 1: Three Al Qaeda terrorists, including the suspected mastermind behind 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, were arrested in Rawalpindi on March 1.

Kuwaiti-born Khalid, who is on the most wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US, is regarded as a key Al Qaeda lieutenant and organizer of the September 11 attacks in the US.

The US government had announced a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

He is a relative of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, now serving a life sentence for involvement in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. On March 2, Khalid was handed over to the US authorities.

2002

December 21: According to Major Stephen Clutter, a US military spokesperson at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, suspected Al Qaeda terrorists who killed a US soldier on December 21 near the village of Shkin, about 60 km south of Gardez, Afghanistan, had fled across the eastern border into Pakistan.

December 18: Ahmed Javed Khawaja, a medical practitioner, is arrested along with four of his relatives for harbouring Al Qaeda terrorists at his residence in Lahore.

According to an Interior Ministry statement in the Lahore court (submitted in January 2003) the terrorists harboured by the family were Abu Yasir Al Jaziri, identified as an Algerian or Moroccan, Assadullah and Sheikh Said Al-Misri, both listed as Egyptians and Abu Faraj, listed as North African.

Al Jaziri was "responsible for the business of al-Qaeda," Al-Misri was a financial chief of the network, and Faraj was the head of Al Qaeda's North Africa network, according to the statement. Faraj was also a deputy of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

Ahmed Khawaja also reportedly confessed that he provided medical treatment to a wife of Osama bin Laden and also to the wife of another key Al Qaeda leader, Abu Zubaida.

The FBI discovered Khawaja’s links with the Al Qaeda by tracing the Internet channels allegedly being used by him.

He has been charged with providing treatment and financial support to Al Qaeda operatives and is alleged to have visited Kabul after 9/11. According to media reports, Khawaja had often visited Afghanistan during the war against the former Soviet Union and had collected funds for war victims at that time.

December 4: Pakistani security agencies arrested two Al Qaeda suspects in South Waziristan Agency, and have reportedly handed them over to American intelligence agencies for interrogation. They have been arrested for alleged involvement in an attack on a US military camp in southern Paktika province of Afghanistan.

November 18: Benevolence International Foundation (BIF), an international Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), with offices in Islamabad and Peshawar was officially declared as a terrorist group by the US authorities. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) USA said, on November 18, BIF has been officially listed as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."

November 8: The US State Department added nine more groups suspected of terrorist links to a visa blacklist that will keep their members or affiliates out of the country. Among the newly named entities is the Pakistan-based Ummah Tamir-e-Nau (UTN), an organisation whose chief Dr. Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former Director General of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, was arrested on October 23, 2001, in Islamabad along with his associate Abdul Majeed (arrested in Lahore) for their alleged links to the Al Qaeda.

November 6: Three Pakistani men have been arrested in California for attempting to supply US-made Stinger missiles to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, US Attorney General John Ashcroft said on November 6. Ashcroft said the three were trafficking 600 kilos of heroin and five tonnes of hashish to purchase the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. "Three individuals have been indicted for conspiring to trade heroin for anti-aircraft missiles which they said they intended to sell to Al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan," said Ashcroft.

October 18: Islamabad police and FBI agents arrested Iranian lecturer Habibullah Zaiee of International Islamic University for his alleged links with the Al Qaeda. A media report indicated that Zaiee was suspected of involvement in co-ordinating the attacks on US installations in the country in the recent past.

October 15: Four Afghan refugees were arrested in a joint raid conducted by local police and US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents at the Jalozai Refugee Camp, Peshawar, on the suspicion that they had links with the Al Qaeda. The Jalozai Refugee Camp is run by the Ittehad-e-Islami Afghanistan, a group consisting of erstwhile Afghan fighters who fought against the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1980s.

September 12: Italian police working with US naval intelligence said they had arrested 15 Pakistanis, suspected to be members of the Al Qaeda terrorist network. They were reportedly taken into custody in August 2002 after arriving in the southern Sicilian port town of Gela on a merchant cargo ship from Morocco. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. "We are certain that these people are part of a terrorist organization, and we are almost certain that that organization is Al Qaeda," said Santi Giuffre, chief of police for the Sicilian province of Caltanissetta. He also said police had seized telephone numbers, including several in Spain and France, which linked these men to the Al Qaeda. Notes and documents referring to the Al Qaeda were reportedly found on-board their Romanian-registered vessel, which set sail from Casablanca in mid-July and was scheduled to visit Tunisia, Malta and the Libyan capital of Tripoli. All men were carrying an open, return air ticket from Karachi to Casablanca, he added.

September 11: Ramzi Binalshibh, Al Qaeda terrorist and a 9/11 prime suspect was detained in Karachi. Two suspected Al Qaeda terrorists were killed and five others, including Binalshibh, were arrested after a three-hour encounter at Defence Housing Authority in Karachi. The encounter ensued when security forces raided an apartment C-63 of a complex on 15th Street, Phase II Extension. Binalshibh, a Yemeni, was arrested with assistance from the FBI.

Binalshibh, wanted in Germany for his alleged role in planning and carrying out the 9/11 attacks, is one of the front-ranking Al Qaeda terrorists to be taken into custody over the past year.

In an interview to the Al Jazeera, he had reportedly claimed that he was an active planner of the 9/11 attacks. US officials have indicated that Binalshibh, also known as Ramzi bin al-Shaibah, was refused visa to enter the US at least four times before 9/11. He reportedly wanted to join the 19 hijackers involved in the multiple terrorist attacks. He was also reportedly one of the roommates of Mohamed Atta––the suspected leader of the 9/11 hijackers––in Hamburg, Germany.

He had played a key role in the transmission of funds to the terrorists undergoing flying training in the USA.

August 17: The then Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said that "58 prisoners of Pakistani origin are at present registered to be at the Guantanamo Base in Cuba." They were arrested in the wake of a crack-down by United States in the post-9/11 operations targeting persons linked with the Al Qaeda.

August 2: US authorities placed six Pakistanis on the list of suspected terrorists, businesses and organisations that are suspected of supporting terrorism. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a new list of specially designated nationals and other persons, whose property is blocked worldwide, in order to assist the public in complying with various sanctions and programmes undertaken by the US government.

One of them, Zia Ahmad, was linked to the multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in the USA.

The six Pakistanis mentioned in the list are: Zia Ahmad, a resident of Peshawar; Saiyid Abd Al-Man'am alias Agha Haji Abdul Manan; Nasir Ali Khan; Abdul Majid Chaudhry; Haji Ibrahim Khan Afridi and Mohammad Aziz.

Furthermore, assets of the Pakistan-Libya Holding Company, Karachi, have been blocked as per the new list, while two new organisations have been listed as suspects in Pakistan, namely Revival of Islamic Society Heritage on the African continent, Pakistan office and Maktaba Al-Khidmat Al-Kifah, Peshawar.

Other organisations and Pakistani nationals on the OFAC list include Lashkar-e-Toiba, Afghan Support Committee, Ahyaul Turas, Jamiat Ayat-ur-Rhas Al Islamia, Jamiat Ihya ul Turath Al Islamia, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Ladehyanoy, Mufti Mohammed Rashid, Ummah Tamir-e-Nau, Rabita Trust and Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood.

July 27: A FBI team along with Pakistan Rangers raided a house in Luqman Mohallah in Khairpur and arrested four foreigners, suspected to be linked with the Al Qaeda.

July 15: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Hyderabad awarded death sentence to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life term to co-accused––Syed Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem and Sheikh Adil––in the Daniel Pearl abduction-cum-murder case.

Omar Sheikh, a front ranking terrorist of the proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammed was prime the accused in the Pearl case.

The court found Omar Sheikh guilty of committing offences under sections 7-A of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (murder) and section 120-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (conspiracy), after a trial inside the central prison.

The judge sentenced the three co-accused to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500,000 each. The court also ordered that all the four accused to jointly pay an amount of Rs 2 million, which would be paid to Pearl's widow Mariane Pearl and their recently born son.

The court held that Omar Sheikh was responsible for creating a sense of fear nationally and internationally and ruled that he had hatched a conspiracy and was the principal offender.

The verdict said, Daniel Pearl being a captive of the accused stood proved and the non-fulfillment of their demands has presumably resulted in the murder of Pearl at the hands of the accused.

July 12: Saleem, a Sudanese, reportedly escaped from Afghanistan to Pakistan after the US-led military campaign began in October 2001, said official sources.

July 3: The raid was reportedly based on tip-offs from US intelligence agents that 40 to 50 Al Qaeda fugitives from the March 2002-Operation Anaconda offensive in eastern Afghanistan were hiding in two buildings.

The US government had frozen the ASC's assets in January 2002 for alleged links with the Al Qaeda.

Reid, on December 22, 2001, unsuccessfully attempted to blow up a bomb contained in his shoe inside an American Airlines flight to Miami that he had boarded at Roissy- Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris.

June 17: Judicial authorities in France decided to place under detention a Pakistani national, Ghulam-Mustafa Rama, for allegedly having provided logistical support to Richard Reid, the British national who is known as the ‘shoe-bomber’, for having attempted to set off an explosive concealed in his shoe during a flight on December 22, 2001 to Miami.

June 11: According to New York Times, Pakistan has arrested several US citizens linked to the Al Qaeda near the Afghanistan border, including a suspected associate of suspected ‘dirty bomb’ builder Jose Padilla.

Padilla alias Abdullah al Muhajir was arrested on May 8 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport after US officials said he had reportedly held extensive meetings with top-Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah about possibly detonating a conventional weapon to spew radiological material in the United States.

On March 2, Macedonian police shot dead in an ambush seven persons who were thought to be part of an international terror network targeting US, British and German interests in the Balkan country.

"We have hints that say the two came from Pakistan and fought in Afghanistan… After their participation in Afghanistan, they were transferred to the Balkans, to countries neighbouring (Macedonia)", said Boskovski.

March 3: Director of the CIA, George J. Tenet, reportedly briefed President Bush on the accumulation of fresh evidence regarding Al Qaeda's nuclear ambition. Tenet reportedly told Bush that Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme was more deeply compromised than either government has acknowledged publicly.

The CIA has given a list of six more nuclear scientists to the Pakistani government whom it wants to probe on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda or Ummah Tamir-e-Nau (Reconstruction of the Muslim Ummah) of Dr Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmud.

The issue was also discussed between President Pervez Musharraf and CIA Director John Tenet during the latter's visit to Pakistan in December 2001.

September 16, 2001: A government source in the Chinese territory of Macau said that police had arrested seven Pakistani nationals after finding documents apparently containing instructions to attack US targets there and in Hong Kong if there were a strike on Afghanistan.

Macau government sources said that the men were arrested after US authorities provided names to security forces in Macau and Hong Kong of people to watch for following 9/11.

Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali, wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, lived in Kenya until fleeing that country on August 2, 1998, to Karachi.

Jamal Ahmed Fadl, 38, a one-time grocery store clerk from Sudan, and L'Houssaine Kherchtou, 37, a former catering student born in Morocco testifying before a 12-member federal jury in New York, investigating the 1998 embassy bombings, admitted to the existence of Al Qaeda's training at camps in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan in firearms, explosives, computers, electronics, passport forgery and surveillance.

In July 1997, two Palestinians and a Pakistani were arrested on a tip-off to New York City police and were found to have suicide bombs and a note indicating they intend a terrorist attack in the city's subways. Lafi Khalil, the Pakistani, entered the country on a tourist visa and stayed on illegally.

In 1995, Abdul Hakim Murad, a Pakistani citizen, was arrested in Philippines following an abortive bomb explosion. Consequent to interrogation, Murad told the story of "Bojinka" – "loud bang" – the code name bin Laden operatives had given to an audacious plan to bomb 11 U.S. airliners simultaneously and fly an air plane into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. – all after attempting to assassinate Pope John Paul II. Investigators also found a stack of passports – Norwegian, Afghan, Saudi, and Pakistani – from the apartment from which he was arrested. Codenamed "BOJINKA," the plot involved using a timing device made from an altered Databank watch. Flight schedules and a decrypted letter found on the computer indicated that five participants were to simultaneously plant devices on flights to the United States.

Jamaat-ul-Fuqra (JuF), a terrorist outfit operating in Pakistan and North America, was formed by a Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, in the early 1980s. In the 1980s, they carried out various terrorist activities, including murders and fire-bombings, across the United States. Although Gilani, the chief of Fuqra resides in Pakistan, most of his group’s cells are located in North America. JuF is allegedly linked through court documents to ‘Muslims of Americas’, a tax-exempt group established in the United States in 1980 by Gilani, who was taken into Pakistani custody in connection with the abduction of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl. ·Although dormant in terms of real activity, it has an active link with terrorist groups in Pakistan and provides both moral and material assistance to these groups.