Five American Muslims were arrested in Pakistan Tuesday for allegedly attempting to work with jihadist groups. The men were all from Northern Virgina, and one – believed to be the ringleader of the group – was a dental student at Howard University, several news outlets are reporting.
The Washington Post is reporting that the five Americans – Umar Chaudhry, Waqar Khan, Ahmad A. Minni, Aman Hassan Yemer and Ramy Zamzam, the Howard student and alleged ringleader, were arrested after having “exchanged e-mails written in code for months with a recruiter for the Pakistani Taliban.”
The men were turned down by militant groups because they did not have proper references and did not speak Urdu, according to the Associated Press.
Zamzam’s brother, who lives in Alexandria, told the AP his sibling is a “normal joe” who maintained a 4.0 average at Howard.
However, according to the Post, the men left videos with “jihadist tones” behind that contained verses from the Koran, footage of war and references to Western and Muslim conflicts.