SAN FRANCISCO, June 14: The Pakistani community in the farming city of Lodi remained under siege on Monday — one week after the arrest of two Pakistani Americans and three Pakistani nationals in a terrorist probe. Eyewitnesses reported the presence of FBI agents keeping surveillance on the frightened community and the mosque in Lodi.
Basim Elkarra, spokesperson of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading civil rights group, said that the CAIR has received many reports that people were being harassed by the FBI. “Some people have been threatened of being deported. This is a concern to us, and we will lodge a complaint with the FBI,” he added.
Meanwhile, Attorney Saad Ahmad, the lawyer for the three Pakistani citizens being held on immigration complaints, criticized the FBI for suggesting that they are part of an investigation of the 22-year-old Pakistani American, Hamid Hayat, suspected of being trained at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan.
In a press statement, Saad Ahmad said there is not a single item of evidence that any of his three clients has ever been involved in or was in any way associated with any terrorist activity whatsoever.
