Washington, Aug 08: A US court has charged 11 persons, including three of Pakistani origin, with being part of a conspiracy to support "violent Jihad" against a friendly country, India. The three Pakistani origin men, Masoud Ahmad Khan, Khwaja Mahmood Hasan and Mohammed Aatique, along with a South Korean, three African Americans, two whites and two of Middle Eastern descent have been indicted under a nearly century-old seldom enforced law forbidding Americans to carry out military expeditions against nations friendly with the US, a report said. According to the indictment, most of the 11 persons trained with weapons at banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba's camps in Pakistan. Some of them fired at Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir. All the 11 have pleaded not guilty of the charges, the Washington Post reported today. Nine of the indicted conspirators are US citizens, several of them registered voters, the report said adding the one thing they have in common is a devotion to Islam.

"The group," said the Post, "Was so close to Pakistan's Intelligence Agency that some US officials opposed putting it on the terrorism list, believing such a move could undermine the country's leadership."
Bureau Report