A Bangladeshi-born US citizen was arrested on Wednesday in central Texas on charges of terrorist activities including ‘committing violent jihad’, US media reports said.Rahatul Ashikim Khan, 23, and Michael Wolfe, 23, also known as ‘Faruq’, were detained separately on charges of trying “to provide material support to terrorists’, Reuters said quoting US prosecutors. Khan was arrested at his home in the Austin suburb of Round Rock, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday. However, Wolfe, who had sought to aid extremist groups fighting in Syria, was arrested at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Tuesday. He was charged in a separate federal criminal complaint with “attempting to provide material support to terrorists,” prosecutors said. Lawyers for the two were not immediately available for comment. Both men face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. They have a detention hearing set for Friday afternoon in Austin. abcnews.go.com reported that Khan allegedly wanted to join al-Shabab, a Somalia-based terror group linked to al Qaeda. For the other, Wolfe, learning to fight in Syria was allegedly the goal. According to the complaint, “Wolfe planned to travel to the Middle East to provide his services to radical groups engaged in armed conflict in Syria,” prosecutors said. The arrest affidavit alleged that Wolfe told a confidential informant in May 2014 that he and his wife were expecting a tax refund in the amount of $5,000. Wolfe indicated his wife wanted to get a portion of the refund to her mother, and the rest of the refund would be for his travel to Syria, according to the affidavit. Source : bdnews24.com
