Imams arrested in America are relatives of LeT founder Saeed ( pro-Osama )

The Pakistani authorities have confirmed the American findings that the imams of three mosques arrested on November 15 in Boston happen to be the close relatives of the founder of the deadly Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who now heads the Jamaatul Daawa.

Pakistani interior ministry sources said that the three Boston-based imams — Hafiz Muhammad Hannan Hafiz Muhammad Masood and Hafiz Mohammad Hamid — are close relatives of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

The sources said they have informed the American authorities that while Hafiz Muhammad Masood and Hafiz Hamid happen to be the real brother of Saeed, Hafiz Muhammad Hannan is his brother-in-law.

Hafiz Masood is an imam at the Islamic Centre of New England, Sharon, Massachusetts, Hannan is an imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell, Massachusetts while Hamid is an imam at the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, Massachusetts.

According to the interior ministry sources in Islamabad, the American authorities had sought confirmation of their findings about three imams who were arrested for visa violations, before being released on a bail of $7,500 each.

The sources said the arrest of 30 people in November was part of a wide swoop carried out by the American Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in eight states and the district of Columbia in connection with an ongoing investigation into a visa fraud scheme.

The scheme was designed to help a large number of illegal aliens, primarily from Pakistan, fraudulently obtain religious worker visas to enter or remain in the United States.

Both Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jamaatul Daawa are generally considered to be pro-Osama and an anti-US groups which have been banned by the US State Department in 2002 and 2006 respectively.

Lashkar-e-Toiba is one of the largest and most active Islamic terrorist outfits in South Asia.

It was founded by Hafiz Mohd Saeed (Hafiz Muhammad Saeed)[1] in the Kunar province of Afghanistan and is currently based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Ever since its formation in 1990, Lashkar-e-Toiba has carried out a series of major terrorist attacks against the Republic of India.[2] The organization is considered as a terrorist organization by several countries like India, United States,[3] United Kingdom,[4] Russia[5] and Australia.[6]

The Lashkar-e-Toiba's primary objective is not only to end Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir but also to establish Islamic rule all over India.

Formed in 1990 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, the Lashkar-e-Toiba is the military wing of the Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI), an Islamic fundamentalist organisation of the Ahle-Hadith sect in Pakistan. The MDI is based in Muridke near Lahore, Pakistan and is headed by Prof. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who is also the Amir of the LeT. He now heads an Islamist charity, Jamaat ud Dawa (JUD, or Party of the Calling), which is a front for the armed group. Its first presence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) was recorded in 1993 when 12 Pakistani and Afghan mercenaries infiltrated across the Line of Control (LoC) in tandem with the Islami Inquilabi Mahaz, another Islamic military organization then active in the Poonch district of J&K[7] .

Following the U.S. notification of the outfit as a foreign terrorist organisation, which put pressure on the Pakistani government to curb overt activities of the organization, the top leadership of MDI initiated a reshuffle of the parent outfit. Presently, the MDI claims that it has been reorganized into two independent wings- one exclusively devoted to preaching of Islam with Prof. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as its chief and the other to carry on its violent campaign in Kashmir under the leadership of Kashmiri scholar Maulana Abdul Wahid Kashmiri.

LeT cadres, unlike other terrorists, are known to prefer death in an encounter with the security forces rather than be arrested. For instance, in 1997, the largest group of terrorists killed in clashes with the security forces belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Majority of the massacres of unarmed Hindus and Sikhs between March 1997 and October 2001 have reportedly been carried out by the LeT.[7] One instance is the cold-blooded murder of 23 persons in Wandhama on January 23, 1988. A second instance is the June 19, 1998, massacre in which 25 members of a wedding party in Doda, Jammu were killed. The extreme level of cold-blooded brutality, which sets Lashkar-e-Toiba apart from other rebel outfits that operate/d in Kashmir before, is evident in the Wandhama massacre, where children as young as one year old were murdered along with women and defenseless men.

Role in Afghanistan
Guantanamo detainee Khalid Bin Abdullah Mishal Thamer Al Hameydani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal said that he had received training at Lashkar e-Taiba.[19]

The Combatant Status Review Tribunals of Taj Mohammed and Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami, and the Administrative Review Board hearing of Abdullah Mujahid and Zia Ul Shah allege that they too were members or former members of Lashkar-e-Toiba.[20][21][22][23]

Also, the Lashkar is claimed to have operated a military camp in post-9/11 Afghanistan, and extending support to the ousted Taliban regime.

[edit] Recent Focus on Lashkar-e-Toiba

2005 London bombings: Links to Lashkar-e-Toiba[24] and Al-Queda involved.

2005 Delhi bombings: During Divali, Lashkar-e-Toiba bombed crowded festive Delhi markets killing 60 civilians and maiming 527.[25]

2006 Varanasi bombings: Lashkar-e-Toiba was involved in serial blasts in Hindu city in the state of Utter Pradesh. Thirty seven people died and 89 were seriously injured.[26]
2006 Mumbai train bombings: The investigation launched by Indian forces and US officials hve pointed to the involvement of Lashkar-e-Toiba in Mumbai serial blasts on 11 July 2006. The Mumbai serial blasts on 11th July claimed 211 lives and maimed about 407 people and seriously injured another 768.[27][28]

2006 blasts at Malegaon: The investigation, presently in its early stages, point to the Lashkar-e-Toiba as suspects. They have had connections with Malegaon's radical Islamist organisations.[7] Alternate theories involving the Bajrang Dal as the perpetrators are also being considered,[29] however, no evidence points to the involvement of Bajrang Dal,[30] and the modus operandi of the attacks are more consistent with Islamist terror outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba.[31]

On September 12, 2006 the propaganda arm of the Lashkar-e-Toiba issued a fatwa against the Christian Pope Benedict XVI demanding that Muslims assassinate him for his controversial statements about Mohamed[32] (for details see Pope Benedict XVI Islam controversy).

On September 16, 2006, a top Lashkar-e-Toiba militant, Abu Saad, was killed by the troops of 9-Rashtriya Rifles in Nandi Marg forest in Kulgam. Saad belongs to Lahore in Pakistan and also oversaw LeT operations for the past three years in Gul Gulabhgash as the outfit's area commander. Apart from a large quantity of arms and ammunition, high denomination Indian and Pakistani currencies were also recovered from the slain militant.[33]

Congress needs to rescind the religious workers visa rules poste haste.

The religious schools in Pakistan are places where people are taught to memorize the Koran, word for word, line by line, from a very young age. Not math. Not science. Not history, except the history of Islam. A graduate of these schools knows nothing else but the Koran, and how it and it alone is the purpose of human existance. The only 'extracurricular' activities, such as they are, involve the use of weapons and explosives.

What, precisely, does such an individual have to offer the United States?

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