June 8, 2005
San Joaquin News Service
Tracy Press
Photo: An FBI agent stands near a home being searched on Acacia Street near a Lodi mosque on Tuesday, Dan Evans/SJNS
LODI — Federal authorities have arrested two men and detained two others who they believe are linked to an al-Qaida terror cell in Lodi, The Sacramento Bee reported on its Web site Tuesday night.
Hamid Hayat, 22, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, were arrested over the weekend on charges of lying to federal agents, and both made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Tuesday, FBI special agent John Cauthen confirmed to The Associated Press. The two men, who are both U.S. citizens, are being held in Sacramento County Jail.
Hamid Hayat is accused in a federal complaint of training in an al-Qaida camp in Pakistan to learn “how to kill Americans,” and then lying to FBI agents about it.
His training included explosives and weapons instruction and using photographs of President Bush as targets, court documents indicate.
Umer Hayat, a Lodi ice cream truck driver, is charged in the complaint with lying about his son’s involvement and his own financing of the terror camp.
Both men made brief initial appearances in U.S. District Court in Sacramento on Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski. Both are being held in Sacramento County Jail pending further court proceedings.
Two other men were detained over the weekend for questioning, area residents said Tuesday. The men were identified by one source as Muhammed Adil Khan and Shabbir Ahmed, and are being held on immigration violations.
The two were believed to be working to open a religious school in Lodi to teach young Muslims. Both were detained after they met separately with Umer Hayat in the predawn hours Saturday.
Neither man was arrested on any criminal charges, according to Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Kice would not disclose where Ahmed and Khan are being jailed. Sacramento County Jail records indicated a Shabbir Ahmed was in custody. No record of Khan could be found.
Ahmed is the imam and Khan is the former imam of a mosque in Lodi.
Khan represented the Lodi Muslim Mosque for three years as imam, equivalent to the Christian term “pastor.” Khan’s former role at the mosque is not clear. Mohammad Shoaib, who took over as mosque president in November 2003, said he fired Khan in January. Others at the mosque claim that Khan was never the imam in the first place.
Khan is now the leader in the effort to build the Farooqia Islamic Center, including a school for children up to fourth grade, south of Lodi on Lower Sacramento Road.
Ahmed has been imam of the Lodi mosque since Khan left the mosque leadership.
FBI agents descended on a house next door to the Lodi Muslim Mosque about a day after two of Lodi’s top Muslim leaders were arrested.
“It’s unfortunate,” Nasim Khan, former mosque president, said after hearing about the arrests. “These are guys who’ve been doing good work in the community.”
On Tuesday, FBI agents searched Ahmed’s house on Poplar Street, next door to the Lodi mosque, and another house on the 300 block of Acacia Street, about four blocks from the mosque.
The house on Acacia, just east of Washington Street, has two residences. The family living in the portion of the house closest to the street was not involved in the FBI search. It is not clear if the searches were related to the arrests.
Agents at the scene and at the FBI office in Sacramento would not disclose what they were doing in Lodi on Tuesday.
Kice and Cauthen declined to disclose any further details on the case except that Khan and Ahmed have the opportunity to appear before an immigration judge.
Modesto attorney Gary Nelson, who is representing Khan and others affiliated with Farooqia Islamic Center in a civil suit filed against them by the Lodi Muslim Mosque, said late Tuesday afternoon he was unaware of the arrests.
People active at the mosque and the Farooqia Islamic Center said Tuesday they didn’t know what had happened.
Shoaib, who was seen talking to an FBI agent Tuesday afternoon in front of Ahmed’s residence, said the only question the FBI asked him was if he was the mosque president.
• The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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