New York: A Pakistani immigrant, whose
house was raided in connection with the failed car bombing of
Times Square, claims to have received an apology from the FBI
after he threatened to sue the agency for racial profiling.
45-year-old Mohammad Iqbal, an immigrant from
Pakistan, was questioned about his links to the terror plot
for five hours as his terrified children watched inside their
home.
The man from Long Island, located in southeastern New
York, claims to have received an apology from the FBI after he
threatened to sue the agency for racial profiling since it
raided his house in connection with the case of terror suspect
Faisal Shahzad, the NY Daily News reported.
"I don`t want my kids to be told their father`s a
terrorist," he was quoted as saying in the report.
Shahzad, who is also originally from Pakistan,
attempted to blow up a section of Times Square on April 30 and
the investigation is still ongoing to catch anyone who may
have been involved in the case.
Iqbal accused the FBI of harassing him in front of his
children. "They could have done it in a different way. My kids
couldn`t sleep all night. My whole family`s so scared," he
said.
Iqbal, said that his nine-year-old son was afraid to
leave the house for school. "People are going to ask me if my
father`s a terrorist," he told his father.
The FBI, however, had disputed Iqbal’s claims.
"The FBI doesn`t engage in ethnic or racial
profiling," FBI spokesperson Jim Margolin said.
"Our position is that he and the other occupants were
treated properly."
Iqbal asserted, according to the Daily News, that the
FBI kept his house under surveillance. Over the weekend, there
were five agents allegedly going through his trash. "It`s
harassment," Iqbal said.
Three other Pakistani men were arrested in northeast
US last month under suspicion of giving Shahzad money. But so
far they have not been criminally charged in connection with
the terror plot because it appears they did not know how the
money was to be used.
Pir Khan, a 43-year-old taxi driver from Watertown,
Boston, was arrested along with his cousin, Aftab Khan, 27.
Both are now facing deportation for violating immigration
laws. A third man, Mohammad Shafiq Rahman, a 33-year-old
computer programmer from South Portland, Maine, was also
arrested.
PTI
