Group planning terror attacks in U.S.: FBI report

A radical Islamic group, Jamaat-ul-Fuqraa, which also goes by the name of “Muslims of America” (MOA) and is active in America and Canada and has publicly supported Pakistan based terrorist groups like the Hizbul Mujahideen, is training its members for carrying out terror strikes in specialised and isolated parts in 12 places across US, an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has revealed. The said investigation report of the FBI was recently declassified.

This group had announced last year in Washington the launch of a “multi-dimensional campaign organised by civil rights attorneys, advocates and social justice activists to end the unceasing atrocities perpetrated against innocent men, women and children in occupied Kashmir and assure the long-overdue liberation of Kashmir”.

The FBI report says that the “members of the MOA are encouraged to travel to Pakistan to receive religious and military/terrorist training from Sheikh Gilani. Sheikh Gilani, a Lahore based ‘cleric’, is the founder of the organisation and his name had first appeared way back in 2002 when Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl was abducted and beheaded while he was on his way to interview Gilani. Gilani operates an organisation in Pakistan that goes by the name of ‘International Quranic open university’.”

The declassified report says that the group owns 10 acres tract that is in a woody and rural area in Texas where shooting practice is arranged. It further goes on to say, “The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within US”.

Last year the US government had blacklisted Syed Salahuddin, who heads Hizbul and has close ties with Sheikh Gilani.

New Delhi based official sources said that the Muslims of America (MoA) is a very “vociferous group” that runs a substantial anti-India campaign across the US, especially for seeking “freedom for Kashmir” and receives massive funding from Pakistan based government officials for promoting its Kashmir narrative across US and Canada.

As per the MoA’s own admission “For more than two decades, MOA has amplified the Kashmiris’ plight by holding rallies in Washington DC, outside the UN headquarters and petitioning the UN. Delegations of volunteers from the Kashmir American Friendship Society (KAFS) and American Muslim Medical Relief Team (AMMRT) have travelled to Kashmir to offer medical assistance, supplies and food. MOA would continue to condemn the atrocities and assist the afflicted, not just because the Kashmiris are Muslim, but also because any innocents who are suffering warrant aid. Despite 70 years of oppression, and the number of Indian occupying forces increasing to over 700,000, the Indian army has failed to obliterate or suppress the Kashmiri people. Today, a new generation of fearless youth has emerged inspired in part by Burhan Wani, whose extrajudicial murder by Indian security forces in 2016 spurred volatile protests, leading India to impose an extensive curfew in order to maintain control. Burhan Wani’s prolific and strategic use of social media and charismatic leadership energized a new generation of freedom fighters. Young schoolgirls are now championing their quest for freedom. India has clamped down and targeted the youth, employing new tactics such as shutting down the Internet and using pellet guns against the youth, blinding thousands”. This was stated by the MoA in one of its press releases of June 2017.