MIAMI — An imam and two of his sons were arrested yesterday on charges they provided some $50,000 to the Pakistani Taliban, officials said.
Hafiz Muhammed Sher Ali Khan, 76, was arrested after morning services at the Miami Mosque, also known as the Flagler Mosque, where he is an imam.
One of his sons, Izhar Khan, 24, an imam at the Jamaat Al-Mu’mineen Mosque in nearby Margate, Fla., was arrested after morning services there. Another son, Irfan Khan, 37, was detained at his hotel room in Los Angeles at around the same time. The men are American citizens.
The mosques are not suspected of wrongdoing, officials said.
Attempts to reach the men’s families, attorneys and mosques were unsuccessful yesterday.
Also named in an indictment are three others at large in Pakistan: Hafiz Khan’s daughter, grandson and an unrelated man. All three are charged with handling the distribution of funds.
The money was used to buy guns, support terrorists’ families and promote the cause of the Pakistani Taliban, according to the indictment.
It also alleges that Hafiz Khan owns a madrassa, or religious school, in his native Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan that shelters members of the Pakistani Taliban and trains children to become terrorists.
US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer noted that the investigation was sparked by suspicious financial activity and was not based on an undercover sting operation.
“This is based on the defendants’ words, actions and records,” Ferrer said yesterday.
The indictment recounts recorded conversations in which Hafiz Khan allegedly voices support for attacks on the Pakistani government and American troops in the region.
The Pakistani Taliban is a wing of the terrorist group that began in Afghanistan. It claimed responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings that killed more than 80 people Friday in what it said was vengeance for the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The group has also been linked to the attempted Times Square car bombing in May 2010.