Red faces over suspects’ Indian passports
Swati Chaturvedi
(New Delhi, September 17)
An "Indian connection" with the bombing of the World Trade Center wasn't something that the Indian government had bargained for.Having watched with glee the heat being applied on Pakistan, it's now the turn of the Indian government to squirm. For it turns out that two of the suspects caught in the US are believed to have Indian passports. With the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asking the authorities here to come up with more information on the two, there are red faces in the Home Ministry.
The two suspects have identified themselves as Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Javeed Azmath and claim to be from India. Both are in their early 50s.
The FBI has told the Indian Government that the duo had "fake-looking passports”. This scenario is similar to the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 where four of the hijackers had procured passports through touts. Ostensibly, the system had been overhauled and new checks introduced. However, as the latest case proves, it is still relatively easy to fool the system.
Says a senior official at the Research and Analysis Wing: "If this turns out to be a case of security lapse, we will really have egg on our face after all our pious pronouncements on terrorism.” What officials really fear is that the two could be Arabs or Pakistanis who took advantage of the touts to get passports. It's almost a replay of Kandahar as the suspects there had also managed to get passports issued using fake names very easily.
At that point the Home Ministry had debated how to make the system foolproof. Sources say while the situation has improved in Delhi, other passport offices continue to be plagued by touts.
Fake Indians?
* Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Azmath picked up from Amtrak train
* Caught with box cutters, hair dye and $5,000
* Claim to be from Gorakhpur and Bangalore
* They could be Arabs or Pakistanis who got passports through touts
* Theirs and Kandahar hijackers’ case could stamp India as a haven for fake passport seekers
By OMER FAROOQ Associated Press WriterHYDERABAD, India (AP) - Almost eight months after two Indian Muslims were detained in Texas for questioning about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, their families still don't know when they'll be home, though both have long since been cleared of involvement.
The two remain in custody in the United States on unrelated charges of credit card fraud that prosecutors said surfaced during a background investigation. Pretrial hearings in the case, in which both men have pleaded innocent, are scheduled to begin this month in a U.S. federal court in New York.
The wait has been agonizing for the families of Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, and Mohammed Jawed Azmath, 38, who knew nothing about the credit card charges until January.
"We are in a total despair. Eight months is not a short period," Gul Begum, Shah's 75-year-old mother, told The Associated Press.
Syeda Fatima, Shah's sister, said that she had written letters to U.S. and Indian authorities including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi - none of which have been answered.
The two men were taken off a train at Fort Worth, Texas, when police found them carrying boxcutters, several thousand dollars in cash and hair dye. The hijackers of the airliners that smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are believed to have used boxcutters.
On the day of the attacks, Azmath and Khan were on a flight from New Jersey to Texas but boarded the train when the flight was diverted to Missouri.
The two told authorities that the tools were for their work at a newsstand in New Jersey and that they were heading for Texas to find new jobs.
They were cleared of suspicion in the hijackings in January but kept in custody on charges of credit card fraud.
Shah is accused of selling 10 to 15 credit cards for about dlrs 1,000 each to other parties, who then used the cards to obtain cash or buy goods and services estimated at dlrs 414,000. He likely would face up to two years behind bars if convicted.
Azmath, if convicted, would likely face less than six months in prison because he was accused of stealing less than dlrs 15,000 through credit card fraud.
The dates for their pretrial hearing in a Manhattan federal court have been set for May 10 and May 17.
"We all will be looking forward to the hearing and pray for a positive outcome," said Tasleema, Azmath's wife.
Time may be running out for Tasleema, a 22-year-old Pakistani.
Her visa expires on May 29 and local police have asked her to leave India. She would likely be able to extend her visa if her husband were here with her.
"I have pleaded my case before police and told them that my husband is under arrest in New York," she said. "The officials have promised to help."
She gave birth to a son in December while her husband was in custody.