SAN FRANCISCO, June 8: The FBI has arrested two Pakistani Americans and two Pakistani nationals in the city of Lodi, about 80 miles south of here, for allegedly operating an Al Qaeda cell in the city. The two briefly appeared on Tuesday before US Magistrate Peter A. Nowinski in Sacramento. Both are being held in the Sacramento County Jail pending further court proceedings.

One of the men arrested, 22-year-old Hamid Hayat, is accused in an FBI criminal complaint of training in an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan to learn “how to kill Americans” and then lying to FBI agents about it.

His father, 47-year-old Umer Hayat, is charged in the complaint with lying about his son’s involvement and his own financing of the Al Qaeda camp.

Pakistani community sources in Lodi said that Hamid Hayat, from Attock, returned from Pakistan on May 29 after his wedding.

An FBI affidavit filed in the court describes the investigation as beginning on May 29 when Hamid Hayat was flying from Pakistan to San Francisco.

Hayat had travelled to Islamabad, from San Francisco on April 19, 2003, arriving there on April 21. He returned to the United States late last month, the affidavit states.

The plane had stopped in South Korea en route to San Francisco. Shortly after it took off, authorities learned Hayat was on the plane and that he was on a federal “no-fly” list, said the affidavit from FBI Special Agent Pedro Tenoch Aguilar.

The plane was diverted to Tokyo, where an FBI agent questioned Hayat, then decided to downgrade his status from the no-fly list and allow him to enter the United States.

Hayat arrived in San Francisco on May 29, and he was interviewed by FBI agents on Friday. He denied ever having attended any terrorist training camps, the affidavit states.

“He stated that he would never be involved with anything related to terrorism,” Aguilar wrote.

Hayat’s father, Umer Hayat, also was interviewed on Friday and said his son was not a terrorist.

The questioning continued through the night into Saturday. Eventually, Hamid Hayat agreed to take a polygraph test, “and his answers to the relevant questions were found to be indicative of deception,” the affidavit states.

“After approximately two more hours of questioning, Hamid indicated that he had, in fact, attended a jihadi training camp in Pakistan,” according to the affidavit.

Hayat, who was born in San Joaquin County, California in 1982, told agents he was trained at a camp near Rawalpindi.

“Hamid later confirmed this camp was run by Qaeda,” the affidavit states. “Hamid described the camp as providing structured paramilitary training, including weapons training, explosives training, interior room tactics, hand-to-hand combat and strenuous exercise.”

Part of the weapons training included sessions where photographs of Bush were pasted onto targets for trainees to shoot at, according to the FBI affidavit.

Classroom sessions also focused on “ideological rhetoric” against the United States and other non-Muslim nations, the document states.

Hayat told agents he had not participated in all facets of the training, but that he knew of all the types being offered and that “he and others at the camp were being trained on how to kill Americans,” the affidavit states.

“Hamid advised that he specifically requested to come to the United States to carry out his Jihadi mission,” the affidavit said.

Umer Hayat continued to deny that he knew anything about terrorist camps in Pakistan, the affidavit said, until agents showed him a videotape of his son’s confession.

“Shortly after viewing that videotape, Umer confirmed that Hamid Hayat attended a jihadi training camp in Pakistan in 2003-04,” the court documents state. “Umer admitted that he paid for Hamid’s flight and provided him with an allowance of $100 per month, knowing that his intention was to attend a jihadi training camp.”

Umer Hayat was represented by Sacramento attorney Johnny Griffin III, who conceded the allegations in the case are “shocking” but said his client “is charged with nothing more than lying to an agent.”

“This is a bailable offence,” Griffin told Judge Nowinski as he asked that Umer Hayat be released on bail. Mr Nowinski rejected the request, saying Umer Hayat “is both a flight risk and a danger to the community.”

“He just returned from Pakistan where he built a new home and contributed financial assistance to an Al Qaida sponsored programme training his son and others to kill Americans whenever and wherever they can be found,” Mr Nowinski said.