Pakistani citizen faces terror trial in Guantanamo Bay

A Pakistani citizen, rained in Maryland, faces terror trial in Guantanamo Bay after being convicted of assisting Al-Qaida with their terror plots

A Pakistani citizen, who was raised in Maryland, turned out to become a terrorist and he is now facing terror charges in Guantanamo Bay. Majid Khan, 31, does not fit the profile of a terrorist, so people who knew him were shocked to find out that he has been involved in such activities. Majid Khan, 31, is accused of joining Al-Qaida when he went to Pakistan for a visit, and later taking part in a series of post-Sept. 11 terror plots.

The charges against Majid Khan include those of murder, attempted murder and providing material support for terrorism. These charges against Majid Khan were approved by the Pentagon's Convening Authority on Wednesday, just two days after they were filed by military prosecutors. Initially this same process used to take months of review and deliberation. The approval entails the arraignment of Majid Khan within 30 days before a military judge at the U.S. base in Cuba. The final date of the arraignment has still not been announced.

Majid Khan lived in the suburbs of Baltimore as a kid and he graduated from high school in 1999. He worked at various gas stations in the area where he lived and even his family owned a gas station. According to Majid Khan's friends from childhood, he was not the sort to get into this sort of stuff. One of Majid Khan's teacher at Owings Mills, said that he was studios and interested in computers in his youth. "It doesn't make any sense to me ... I can't imagine it. He wasn't one of these kinds of fool-around kids. He just seemed serious ... He wasn't a light-hearted jokester," Khan's teacher told the reporters. Even Majid Khan's father cannot believe that his son is capable of being a terrorist, but he did mention that he might have been 'brainwashed'.

Majid Khan's prosecutors allege that Majid Khan joined Al-Qaida on a trip to Pakistan. The major allegations against him include plotting with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad to blow up underground fuel tanks in the U.S. and scheming to assassinate Parvez Musharaf, who was the president of Pakistan at that time. Majid Khan was also involved in the bombing of a J.W. Marriott hotel in Indonesia in August 2003, which resulted in the death of 11 people.