Two South African Muslims of Indian origin have been accused of having links with the Al-Qaeda by the US in a document submitted to the UN, a media report here said. The US has submitted documents to the UN that alleges that Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, a cleric and a businessman from Pretoria and Junaid Ismail Dockrat, a dentist from Johannesburg are cousins with links with the Al-Qaeda network.The US claimed that Farhad Dockrat in 2001 had given USD100,000 to the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan for transmission to the Al Akhtar Trust headquarters in Pakistan, which had been identified as a fund-raiser for the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times said on Sunday. The Trust has been identified as a Special Designated Global Terrorist group (in terms of the Executive Order 13224), designed to block financial and material support to terrorists and their facilitators, the US said.
Junaid Dockrat has been accused of being in contact with Al Qaeda's late operations chief Hamza Rabia and co-ordinating the travel of South Africans to Pakistan to train with the terror group. However, both have rejected the allegations. "I have never paid any money to Al-Qaeda in my life. If one is Muslim and had Muslim concerns at heart, then one is considered a terrorist by the US," said Farhad Dockrat.
"We are public figures, law abiding citizens. I will absolutely contest this. I am not involved in funding Al-Qaeda. Nobody has come to me to explain why the US has put me on the list", said Junaid Dockrat.