ALEXANDRIA (USA), July 25: More than a dozen Muslims, including at least one Pakistani and several US citizens of Pakistani-origin, have been sentenced to imprisonment for their association with Lashkar-i-Taiba and for conspiracy to wage jihad against India.

A statement issued by the US Department of Justice on Wednesday noted that the State Department designated Lashkar-i-Taiba a terrorist organisation in December 2001.

Although one of the convicts, Sabri Benkahla, 32, of Falls Church, Virginia, became a state witness, he too was sentenced this week to 121 months in federal prison, and ordered to pay a $17,500 fine.

He was found guilty of perjury before the grand jury and of making false official statements to the FBI. These false statements included his denial of involvement with an overseas Jihad training camp in 1999, as well as his asserted lack of knowledge about individuals with whom he was in contact.

Most of the convicts attended the Dar al Arqam Islamic Centre in Falls Church, Virginia. In June 2003, Benkahla and 10 others were indicted by a grand jury in Alexandria for conspiring to attack Indian troops in Kashmir and the Russians in Chechnya in the course of training for Jihad in Virginia and Pakistan.

Among the defendants, Masaud Khan, Seifullah Chapman, Randall Royer, Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, Muhammed Aatique, Yong Kwon, and Khwaja Hasan, were alleged to have attended Jihad training camps operated by Lashkar-i-Taiba, in 2000 and 2001.

In September 2003 Khan and Royer were charged with conspiring to wage war against the United States, aid the Taliban, aid Al Qaeda, and Khan, Royer, Chapman, and Hammad Abdur-Raheem were charged with providing assistance to the Lashkar-i-Taiba.