In a major step to strengthen ties between the US and India, US deported Al Qaeda terrorist Mohammed Ibrahim Zubair to India. He was brought on a special flight on May 19. He is currently isolated at a quarantine centre in Amritsar, Punjab.
As per the US justice department, 38-year-old Zubair has been accused of financing terrorism in a bid to support violent jihad against US military personnel in Iraq.
The US justice department said in a press release in 2018 said, "Ibrahim Mohammad, an Indian citizen, studied engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 2001 through 2005. In or around 2006, he moved to Toledo, Ohio, and married a U.S. citizen. He became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in or around 2007,"
According to the US justice department, Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad, along with Asif Ahmed Salim, 38; and Sultane Room Salim, 43, facilitated the transfer of thousands of dollars to 'Anwar Al-Awlaki in an effort to support violent jihad against U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world' in 2009.
Awlaki, a controversial Yemeni-American imam, who was involved in planning Al Qaeda's terror operations, was killed in a US missile strike in 2011.
"After law enforcement began investigating the financial transactions involved in the funds provided to Awlaki, Ibrahim Mohammad, Asif Salim and Sultane Salim attempted to conceal the source of the funds provided to Awlaki by lying to investigators and deleting emails from their accounts that were related to the transactions," the US justice department said. The trio was investigated by the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).