Pakistani Linked to Al Qaeda Is Deported

WASHINGTON — A member of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda has been deported to Pakistan after being detained more than a year, Homeland Security investigators said Friday.

Pakistani native Khamal Muhammad told authorities he was an armed guard and cook for Harakat ul-Mujahidin -- designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization associated with Al Qaeda.

Muhammad, 23, was living in the San Francisco area when he was arrested in January 2004 for overstaying his visa by eight months, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Security Department.

He entered the United States in 2001, a year after he trained to use pistols, rifles and grenades in a Harakat ul-Mujahidin camp in Afghanistan, immigration officials said. They said the leader of Harakat ul-Mujahidin was believed to be a close ally to Osama bin Laden.

The Justice Department did not pursue criminal charges against Muhammad.

He was held on immigration charges for 15 months by the U.S. before being sent back to Pakistan last week, immigration officials said.

“We brought all the charges that we could, using the administrative authorities that we have,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Dean Boyd said Friday.

Muhammad was deported May 17.

Separately, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported another Pakistani man the same day.

He had finished serving a 16-month sentence for lying to federal agents about the whereabouts of a militant leader.

Hamid Sheikh, 41, had refused to help federal agents in Philadelphia locate Agha Ali Abbas Qazalbash.

Authorities said Qazalbash was a member of a militant Shia organization in Pakistan.

The group, Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan, was outlawed in Pakistan in August 2001.