FBI quizzes Pakistanis over anthrax scare
WASHINGTON: Federal agents broke into the home of two Pakistani American brothers in Pennsylvania and subjected them to questioning and searches over the source of the anthrax contamination in the United States.
Their homes in Chester, Pennsylvania, were searched and several items were seized. Authorities, however, would not say why or what items were seized, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Armed FBI swat teams used battering rams to break open the front doors of the house owned by Irshad Shaikh, a Pakistan native who has been city health commissioner since 1994 and teaches part-time at Johns Hopkins University.
He and his brother, Masood Shaikh, who works in Chester's lead abatement programme and lives with Shaikh, were questioned by the FBI soon after the anthrax scare hit the nation.
"They were here, they asked some questions, they left. I fully cooperated from this side and they left," Shaikh said. He declined to reveal what he was asked about.
"There's nothing to be found," Masood Shaikh said.
Irshad Shaikh, 39, is a faculty associate at Johns Hopkins University's school of public health, where he has taught since last year, Hopkins spokesman Dennis O'Shea said.
Shaikh, who earned a master's and doctorate in international health at Hopkins, has no access to labs where biological agents were present, university officials said.
"Not only is he not in labs, our labs do not have anthrax," O'Shea said. Chester is about 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
This is not the first time Shaikh has been investigated. In 1999, a grand jury investigated him following reports that he may have written prescriptions illegally. He was not indicted.
Although Shaikh graduated from a medical school in Pakistan, he is not licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania and therefore should not prescribe drugs in the state.
FBI also searched a house occupied by Asif Kazi, a city accountant. Mayor Dominic F. Pileggi said Kazi is a native of Pakistan.
FBI agents also removed green trash bags from the both houses and they also searched at least one vehicle parked behind the home where Kazi lives.
FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said the searches were conducted without incident and nobody was arrested. Decontamination tents were set up in the area, but Vizi would not say why they were needed.
"We are very concerned about the safety of people who make entry into any facility. I'm not going to be specific as to what we're looking for," she said adding that there was "no public safety issue" and that neighbours were safe.
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