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Two Indians arrested after 9/11
attack charged with fraud

Dharam Shourie in New York

Two Indians, who were arrested while carrying box cutters, hair dye and $ 5,500, a day after September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, have been charged with credit card fraud.

Ayub Ali Khan, 36, and Mohammed Azmath, 38, could be sentenced up to five years in prison if convicted for federal charges.

The court documents accuse them of using false credit card and running up bills of more than $ 450,000.

The duo, who come from Hyderabad, will on Wednesday appear before a US district court in Manhattan for pre-trial hearing.

The two men were taken off a train during a search on September 12 last year as they aroused the suspicion of the authorities because they were carrying box cutters. The terrorists who crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington had used box cutters to hijack the planes.

Investigators have not been able so far to find any link the arrested Hydrabadis and the 9/11 terrorist strikes.

Khan's lawyer Lawrence Feitell said he would plead for dismissal of the case. The evidence obtained against his client cannot be used as "the stop was illegal," he added.

"Everything they got out of him was because of a bad stop. This man was riding on a public train, Amtrak, and he got stopped for no reason at all. I think he was profiled," Feitell said.

Prosecution officials have refused to comment on the matter.

The accused had boarded a flight from Newark Airport in New Jersey for St. Antonio, Texas, on September 11 but it was terminated at St Louis after the terrorist attacks. They took the train the next day but were arrested during a search operation.

The two had worked at a New Jersey newspaper stand until it was sold in August.

PTI

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