Another Chicago resident arrested for terror links

A Chicago man of Pak,with suspected links to HUJI chief Ilyas Kashmiri,was arrested on Saturday.

A Chicago man of Pakistani origin,with suspected links to HUJI chief Ilyas Kashmiri,was arrested on Saturday on charges of providing material support to a terrorist organisation.

Raja Lahrasib Khan,a naturalised citizen of the US who worked as a taxi driver in Chicago is alleged to have discussed a plot to attack a stadium in the US and is to be produced in a court here on Saturday,officials said.

The investigation in the case was not related to the case of LeT operatives David Coleman Headly and his associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana,and there was 8220;no imminent domestic danger,8221; said a statement from FBI8217;s Chicago Office.

Headley and Rana have been charged with plotting terror attacks in Denmark and Mumbai.

Khan,56,was arrested this morning while working in downtown Chicago by Chicago FBI8217;s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

He was charged with two counts of providing material support to terrorism in a criminal complaint filed in US District Court in Chicago,said Patrick J Fitzgerald,US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois,and Robert D Grant,Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of FBI.

According to a 35-page complaint,Khan,who claims to have known Ilyas Kashmiri for approximately 15 years,had learnt by at least 2008 that Kashmiri was linked to al Qaeda,was purportedly receiving orders from al Qaeda8217;s leader,Osama bin Laden.

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8220;According to Khan,during his meeting or meetings with Kashmiri,among other things,Khan learned that Kashmiri wanted to train operatives to conduct attacks in the United States8230; and Kashmiri told Khan that he needed money,in any amount,to be able to purchase materials from the black market,8221; it said.

The charges allege that on Nov 23,2009,Khan sent a money transfer of approximately USD 950 from a currency exchange in North LaSalle Street in Chicago to Individual A,who was in either Mirpur or Bhimber,in Pakistan.

David Kris,Assistant Attorney General for National Security said the arrest and charges are the result of an outstanding cooperative law enforcement and intelligence effort and 8220;underscore the domestic and international aspects of the terror threat we face8221;.

The complaint identifies Kashmiri as the leader in Kashmir of Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami HUJI,an extremist group located in Pakistan and Kashmir with links to al Qaeda.

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Kashmiri was in January 2010 indicted alongwith Rana and Headley for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to attack the facilities of a Danish newspaper.