An Indian national living in Malaysia was charged in the United States for helping to fund the sale of missiles to terrorists with the aim of shooting down American airliners (*) .

According to a BBC report, Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed was charged yesterday with conspiring to operate an illegal money-transmitting business to pay for the imported missiles.

He was arrested on Tuesday at a gem dealership in New York. However, no other details about the suspect were reported.

A report by international news agency Reuters said that the 38-year-old Moinuddeen was an Indian citizen who arrived in the United States on Tuesday from Malaysia.

Since the Sept 11 terror attacks, Malaysia has been constantly named as one of the hot spots for terrorists much to the chagrin of the government.

Two of the suspected terrorists

involved in the attacks were said to have been in Kuala Lumpur prior to it while a report in Newsweek last year claimed that Malaysia was the launchpad for the terror strikes which left hundreds dead.

The police here have also arrested several individuals for allegedly having links to a regional terror network called Jemaah Islamiah ( JI).

JI was said to be connected to al-Qaeda, the terror movement blamed for the Sept 11 attacks which collapsed the World Trade Center in New York and damaged the Pentagon building.

Following the bomb attacks in Bali, Indonesia, last year which killed nearly 200 people, mostly foreigners, Malaysia was once again dragged into the picture.

Indonesian police said Malaysians were involved while its Indonesian mastermind was reportedly a religious teacher here and married to a local

'Osama admirer'

Meanwhile, charged alongside with Moinuddeen was Hemant Lahkani, a Briton of Indian origin and American Yehuda Abraham, a 75-year-old New York City jeweller.

Hemant ( photo ), 68, described as an arms dealer and admirer of Osama bin Laden, was charged with conspiring to sell the missiles while Abraham was remanded on the same money laundering charge as Moinuddeen in the Manhattan court.

Their arrests followed an 18-month long sting operation involving UK and Russian intelligence.

According to the BBC report, the Briton allegedly tried to sell an Igla missile to an FBI agent posing as an Islamic militant after buying it from Russian intelligence officers posing as suppliers.

According to the FBI affidavit, the Igla missile had been intended as a taster for an eventual batch of 50 and Lakhani was looking for a down payment of US$500,000.

The Igla missile, which has a four-km range and an infrared capability, is thought to have downed at least one Russian helicopter in Chechnya.

The Igla provided by the Russian security services in this case was dummy which could not have been fired.

(*) CORRECTION: Malaysiakini has originally quoted BBC as saying that Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed is a Malaysian. The BBC has since clarified that Moinuddeen is an Indian citizen living in Malaysia. We regret the error.