Pak-origin US cab driver pleads not guilty to terror charges

Yoshita Singh

Chicago, Apr 5 (PTI) A Pakistani-origin taxi driver
indicted on charges of providing material support to terror
group al-Qaeda and accused of having links with HuJI chief
Ilyas Kashmiri on Monday pleaded not guilty in a US court
here.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with his hands
shackled, 56-year-old Raja Lahrasib Khan appeared before US
Magistrate Court Judge Zagel and pleaded not guilty to the
charges of providing material support and funds to Osama bin
Laden's terror group.
During short session, the Judge set May 5 as the date
for next hearing. Members of Khan's family, including his son
Omar and wife Diane, as well as a few cab drivers were also
present during the hearing.
The accused will be in lock-up till then without bond.
Khan was arrested from downtown Chicago on March 26 as
he was waiting in his cab for customers.
His arrest comes five months after Chicago residents
David Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana were arrested by the
FBI on terror charges. Headley has since pleaded guilty to his
role in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks.
Khan, who claims to have known al-Qaeda-linked HuJI
chief Ilyas Kashmiri for 15 years, is being held at the
federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre where 26/11
plotter David Coleman Headley and co-accused
Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Rana are also detained.
He came to the US in 1975 and became a naturalised
citizen in 1998. He has three children from his previous
marriage and has been married to an American since 1994. PTI
YAS