by Khalid Hasan
Dai­ly Times (Pak­istan)

WASHINGTON: Imam Muham­mad Masood, broth­er of Hafiz Muham­mad Saeed, founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Tayya­ba, was ordered deport­ed by a Boston, Mass­a­chu­setts court on Thurs­day on an immi­gra­tion vio­la­tion charge.

Under an agree­ment with fed­er­al immi­gra­tion author­i­ties, the for­mer imam of the 1,500-member Islam­ic Cen­tre of New Eng­land agreed to vol­un­tar­i­ly leave the Unit­ed States on Fri­day night and return to Pak­istan rather than be deport­ed by the author­i­ties which would have tak­en months, a peri­od he would have spent in jail. He was accused of hav­ing lied to immi­gra­tion author­i­ties from 2002 to 2006 in a bid to obtain a Green Card. He plead­ed guilty in Feb­ru­ary to five fed­er­al crimes stem­ming from his actions, which led to his depor­ta­tion order. He will leave behind his wife and eight chil­dren.

Imam Masood came to the US in 1987 under a spe­cial visa for exchange stu­dents. He enrolled at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty and trans­ferred to Boston Uni­ver­si­ty a year lat­er to study eco­nom­ics. He became the imam of the Sharon mosque in 1998. In Decem­ber 2002, Masood admit­ted that he had false­ly told author­i­ties in an appli­ca­tion for per­ma­nent legal res­i­den­cy that he returned to Pak­istan from 1991 to 1993 after com­plet­ing his stud­ies. Immi­grants with the kind of visa Masood had are required by law to return to their coun­try of ori­gin for two years before they can apply for a Green Card. Masood said he nev­er left Boston. He also admit­ted false­ly deny­ing to immi­gra­tion author­i­ties that he had been arrest­ed for any crimes. He was arrest­ed for alleged shoplift­ing in Nor­wood in 2000. The charge was dis­missed.