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Arrested Canadian Pakistani linked to British raids

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The arrest in Ottawa of a Pakistani computer worker has been linked to the earlier arrest in England of nine Pakistani-Britons on terrorism-related charges.

Canadian authorities have laid terrorism charges, the first since new security laws were passed in the wake of 9/11, against 24-year-old Mohammad Momin Khawaja of Ottawa. Armed Canadian tactical officers earlier raided his family home in the quiet Ottawa suburb of Orleans on Monday. He was arrested while at work, according to the RCMP, the Canadian security and intelligence service. The RCMP, while not willing to say how or if the raid in Ottawa and the raids in England were connected, did say in a statement that Mr. Khawaja was part of a conspiracy that was hatched in both London and Ottawa, and took shape some time after November. 10 before it was thwarted this week.

According to the Globe and Mail, Canada’s most respected newspaper, “Specifically, Mr Khawaja was charged with knowingly participating in a terrorist group and knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity. If convicted of these new Criminal Code charges, he could face up to 14 years in jail. The trial will be a closely watched test case of Canada’s security laws.”

A Canadian government official told the newspaper that Mohammad Momin Khawaja performed “mundane” contract computer work for the Foreign Affairs Department for perhaps six to eight months. The official said he was not working on any secure systems and he was not working at the department’s headquarters. “We’re not at all worried about this,” in terms of any security breach, the official said.

Mr Khawaja’s arrest follows a number of controversial cases involving Muslim Canadians, some of which have fallen apart in a very public manner. These cases include the deportation of Ottawa’s Maher Arar to Syria by US authorities, as well as false terrorism allegations made against a group of illegal Pakistani immigrants in Toronto. “The cases have caused members of Canada’s Islamic community to express fears about being targeted. But the Mounties say the new case, the first terrorism allegations to result in Criminal Code charges in Canada since the new laws were passed, is about legitimate security fears.,” according to the Globe and Mail.

Mr Khawaja’s brother Qasim Khawaja told the newspaper that he was shocked at the RCMP’s contention that the action taken was “directed at criminal activity with respect to national security.” He said, “I guess it’s going to be like a precedent or something. I guess they have a very vivid imagination.” Qasim said earlier that his younger brother is innocent of any wrongdoing and that his family has been traumatised by the raid on their home, where they have lived for more than a decade. “They asked me if I had technology there (to make a bomb),” he said, adding that “they turned everything upside down.”

He did say police asked a lot of questions about his brother, who he said went to England “probably a couple of months ago. He was trying to find a wife. We have relatives over there and, as far as I know, he was trying to find a bit of a match.”

Mr Qasim Khawaja said he was watching television with his oldest sister in their family home Monday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. when about 20 heavily armed RCMP officers crashed through the front door. All family members were interrogated individually. Police took away computers, computer files and the family’s passports. He said he was questioned for more than seven hours before he was released.

Friends of the family expressed shock at the allegations. “They are very peaceful kind of people,” Qamar Masood, a family friend and president of the Canada-Pakistan Association of the National Capital Region, told the Globe and Mail. “It looks like nobody is secure any more,” he said. “You don’t know when somebody can barge inside your home. Maybe there was a misunderstanding down the line, who knows what it is? It remains to be seen.”

The RCMP said that Mohammad Momin Khawaja was its only target, even though other members of the family were initially detained. The RCMP said family members were taken away from the home in a bid to preserve the integrity of the scene. Family members said the house had been picked clean of papers and computers.

According to the report, “The brothers are part of a large family, with four brothers and a sister fathered by Mahboob Khawaja. From Saudi Arabia on Monday, he told a reporter that the raid on his family home was “a hoax to create embarrassment.” The family’s mother, 52-year-old Azra Khawaja, was picked up by the RCMP Monday while she was shopping at the grocery store. The raid in Canada coincided with another raid of eight terror suspects in Britain, where a sweep involving hundreds of officers arrested the suspects and seized about half a tonne of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient commonly used to make bombs. But officials in Ottawa would not say yesterday whether there was any link between the two raids.”

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