A 31-year-old Pakistani doctor has been sentenced to 18 years of prison in the US State of Minnesota for providing support to the Islamic State terror group and conspiring to carry out 'lone wolf' attacks on American soil. He also reportedly tried to join the group to fight in Syria.
The convict, identified as Muhammad Masood, had pleaded guilty last year to trying to provide material support to the terror organisation. According to prosecutors, Masood, a former research coordinator in Mayo Clinic, had tried to travel to Syria from the US in 2020 unsuccessfully, then agreed to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet someone he thought would help him travel to the IS territory.
However, the Pakistani doctor was caught by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents on March 19, 2020 and his latest sentence was carried out on Friday by US District Judge Paul Magnuson.
Prosecutors also alleged that Masood had been staying in the US on a work visa and had made several statements pledging his allegiance to the IS group in conversations with paid informants. He had also posted messages on an encrypted social media platform expressing his intent to support IS.
According to an FBI affidavit, Masood contacted one of the informants on the platform and said that he wanted to travel to Syria, Iraq or northern Iran near Afghanistan “to fight on the front line as well as help the wounded brothers."
It is worth mentioning that the Islamic State terror group previously had large portions of Iraqi and Syrian territory under its control, but lost its hold in 2019 due to clashes with the military of the countries that left hundreds dead. However, many fighters still remain and the UN has warned that the group still has 5,000-7,000 fighters in the area and remains a persistent threat to Afghanistan.
On the other hand, Minnesota has become a recruiting ground for terrorist groups, as three dozens people from the state have left since 2007 to join al-Shabab, an affiliate group of the al-Qaeda in East Africa, or the IS. Most of these are men from the Somali community. Many people have been convicted on terrorism-related charges or for providing support to these groups.
(with AP inputs)
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