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Reuters - August 17, 2005
Lodi Imam, son back in Pakistan after U.S. deportation
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Pakistani Muslim imam and his son were deported after being arrested for immigration violations during a terrorism probe focused on Lodi, California, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Mohammad Adil Khan, 47, who served as an imam at a Lodi mosque, and his son Mohammad Hassan Adil, 19, agreed last month to the deportation ordered due to immigration violations.
They arrived back in Pakistan on a commercial airliner late on Tuesday, accompanied by officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency said in a statement.
"Mr. Khan's removal from the United States is another victory for ICE in its continuing effort to restore integrity to the nation's immigration system and to protect the community from those who might attempt to do us harm," said Ronald Le Fevre, chief ICE San Francisco counsel.
Lodi is a Central Valley town about 65 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Saad Ahmad, lawyer for the two men, said they had nothing to do with the federal probe focused on Lodi in which a different father and son have been charged with lying about ties to al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan.
On Monday, Shabbir Ahmed, another Muslim cleric in Lodi believed by U.S. officials to be a contact man for the Pakistani-American who trained at an al Qaeda camp agreed to be deported.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-08-17T205010Z_01_HO774995_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-SECURITY-USA-PAKISTAN-DC.XML
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