16 May 2004	Sunday	25 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

SAN FRANCISCO, May 15: US officials are trying to determine if a Pakistani, arrested in Texas on March 8, has links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Houston-based newspaper reported on Saturday.

Osama Haroon Satti, 35, was caught attempting to buy plastic explosives, guns and silencers in Tyler, Texas, Houston Chronicle said.

The newspaper quoted US officials as saying that Satti travelled to Texas from Alexandria, Virginia, an area near Washington where the US authorities broke up an alleged Lashkar-i-Taiba cell in 2003. Eleven men were charged with guns and explosives related violations.

Satti first came to the United States in 1990 to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1993 and an MBA in 1997.

He is scheduled to go to trial on June 1. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the two weapons counts if convicted.

Satti has pleaded not guilty in April to two gun charges. An arrest affidavit stated that he purchased a 9mm pistol and a silencer for $2,000.

Lashkar-i-Taiba was designated by the US government a terrorist organization in December 2001.