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190———Jamaat ul-Fuqra

Jaish-e-Mohammed is currently suspected of having responsible for firebombing Hare Krishna temples in
been involved in the January 2002 kidnapping and Denver and Philadelphia, and the January 1990 murder
murder, in Pakistan, of American journalist Daniel of a Tucson, Arizona, Muslim cleric, Rashad Khalifa.
Pearl. Ahmed Omar Sheikh, convicted in July 2002 Jamaat ul-Fuqra and its members have been investi-
of the crimes, is a close friend and associate of Azhar. gated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and
arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto,
See also AL QAEDA; HARAKAT UL-MUJAHIDIN; DANIEL PEARL
Denver, Los Angeles, and Tucson.
During the 1980s and 1990s, ul-Fuqra members in
Further Reading
the United States purchased isolated rural compounds,
Chand, Attar. Pakistan Terrorism in Punjab and Kashmir. where they lived communally and engaged in para-
Columbia, MO: South Asia Books, 1996. military exercises.
Ganguly, Sumit. Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions The discovery in 1989 of guns, explosives, pipe
Since 1947. New York: Columbia University Press; bombs, military training manuals, false identification
Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center, 2001.
Giyas-Ud-Din, Peer. Understanding the Kashmiri Insur- documents, and workers compensation claim forms
gency. New Delhi: Anmol, 1997. in a storage locker in Colorado eventually led to the
Kumar, D. P. Kashmir: Pakistan’s Proxy War. New Delhi: arrest of several members of the group. A two-year
Har-Anand, 1995. investigation resulted in the indictment of several ul-
Fuqra members by the Colorado State grand jury in
1992 on racketeering charges including theft, mail
JAMAAT UL-FUQRA fraud, murder, arson, and forgery.
In 2001, several members of an ul-Fuqra commune
in Virginia were arrested on fraud and weapons charges.
Fuqra is an Arabic word that translates as “the The group was believed to be filing fraudulent workers
impoverished.” Jamaat ul-Fuqra (“Community of the compensation claims and sending the proceeds to
Impoverished”) was founded in the late 1970s by Gilani in Pakistan.
Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarik Ali Jilani Hasmi. Today, Jamaat ul-Fuqra continues to be active in
An Islamic sect that advocates the purification of the United States. In California, a member was
Islam by force and violence, the group is named on arrested for the murder of a Fresno County deputy
the U.S. State Department’s list of “other terrorist sheriff in August 2001. Active ul-Fuqra training com-
organizations.” pounds are believed to be located in New York,
Although active in the guerrilla war in Kashmir, Virginia, South Carolina, and California.
until recently Jamaat ul-Fuqra had a low profile in In January 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter
Pakistan. In the United States, however, its members Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan while investi-
have committed at least 13 murders and firebombings gating a connection between Jamaat ul-Fuqra and
and are currently believed to have been connected Richard Reid. Pearl’s family told the authorities that
with the 2002 kidnap and murder in Pakistan of Wall he was scheduled to meet with Sheikh Gilani before
Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and with failed he disappeared. Pearl was murdered by his abduc-
“shoe bomber” Richard Reid. tors. The National Movement for the Restoration
of Pakistani Sovereignty claimed responsibility;
however, it was an organization unknown to Pakistani
UL-FUQRA IN THE UNITED STATES
authorities. Several Islamic militants were arrested
Court documents link ul-Fuqra to Muslims of the by Pakistan, including Sheik Gilani, but were later
Americas, a tax-exempt group established in the released. On July 15, 2002, British-born Islamic mili-
United States in 1980 by Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah tant Ahmed Omar Sheikh was convicted and sen-
Gilani. Almost all of the U.S.-based ul-Fuqra members tenced to death by a court in Hyderabad, Pakistan,
are American citizens. for the Pearl kidnapping and murder; three accom-
During the 1980s, Jamaat ul-Fuqra members in the plices, Salman Saqib, Fahad Naseem, and Shaikh
United States attacked a variety of targets that they saw Adil, received life sentences.
as enemies of Islam, including Hindus and Muslims
they regarded as heretics. The group is believed to be See also DANIEL PEARL; RICHARD REID