Storage Locker Search
Colorado Springs, CO
Jamaat ul-Fuqra
In 1989, a Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) detective found materials in a local storage locker that would link the murder of a controversial sheik and the bombing of a Hare Krishna temple to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a radical Sunni group that originated in Pakistan and supports the purification of Islam using violence and force.[1] The group's founder, Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani, introduced the group in the U.S. in the 1980s.[2]
The CSPD detective initially searched the storage locker because he believed it held stolen property linked to several burglaries. Instead, the detective found suspicious documents. The detective obtained a second warrant to thoroughly search the contents of the locker and sought the help of the CSPD Intelligence Unit, Bomb Unit, K-9 Unit, Colorado Department of Revenue, and Liquor and Tobacco Enforcement Unit.[3]
Among the many items found during the subsequent searches by the detective and other government officials were "Talibeen Fuqra Jamaat" membership applications, documents showing the locations and routes of major electric, gas, and telephone lines throughout Colorado, photographs and a detailed description of a planned bomb attack against a Hare Krishna Temple in Denver, electric wiring and timers, 30 pounds of explosives, 3 large assembled pipe bombs, handguns with removed serial numbers, bomb-making instructions, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), military training manuals, the business card of James D. Williams, 54 blank birth certificates from North Carolina and Louisiana, and a detailed description of method to be used to murder a member of a mosque in Arizona, Rashad Khalifa.[4]
The evidence from the locker implicated Fuqra in the 1984 bombing of a Hindu Temple in Denver and warned authorities of the imminent murder of Sheik Khalifa in Tucson. Khalifa was considered a heretic by Fuqra members for his belief that the Koran was written by man and not by Allah.[5]
Khalifa was found stabbed to death four months later. He was murdered in a manner similar to the plan found in the storage locker. The plan detailed that due to the possibility of police presence, "dispatching of the subjects(s)" were instructed to be carried out "in the quietest method feasible: knife, garrotte [cord or metal wire used to strangle a victim and/or break the victim's neck]..."[6]
Authorities had contacted Khalifa only a week before his death, but as a detective reported, Khalifa "did not seem unusually surprised that a group such as this had contemplated killing him."[7] Fuqra member James D. Williams, whose business card was found in the Colorado locker, was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder of Khalifa in October 1993.[8]
As for the bombing of the Hare Krishna temple in Denver in 1984, the storage locker materials indicated to authorities that a Fuqra cell then established in Englewood, Colorado had planned and carried out the firebombing.[9] Williams was also convicted for his involvement in planning the firebombing of the temple, which caused $200,000 in damage.[10]
Douglas Wamsley, who prosecuted Fuqra members for the Colorado Attorney General's office said of Fuqra:
"Even before Sept. 11, I called them a terrorist group and I meant it. Firebombing a Hare Krishna temple is a terrorist act. There's nothing to be gained from it except terrorizing those people."[11]
Though the government was watching Fuqra before the raid of the storage locker, the materials found in the search allowed investigators to launch a more extensive investigation into the group. [12]
[1] Press Release, Colorado Office of the Attorney General, "Attorney General Salazar Announces 69 Year Sentence for "Fuqra" Defendant Convicted of Racketeering And Conspiracy To Commit Murder," March 16, 2001.
[2] Jerry Seper and Steve Miller, "Sniper suspects may be followers; Ties sought to militant Muslim group Jamaat ul-Fuqra," The Washington Times, November 13, 2002, pg. A10.
[3] John Kane and April Wall, "Identifying the Links between White-Collar Crime and Terrorism," April 2005, pg. 34. This paper was supported by Grant No. 2003-IJ-CX-1018 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
[4] Ibid, pgs. 35-37.
[5] Knut Royce, "Black Muslim Sect Scrutinized," Newsday, June 27, 1993, pg.6.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Press Release, Colorado Office of the Attorney General, "Attorney General Salazar Announces 69 Year Sentence for "Fuqra" Defendant Convicted of Racketeering And Conspiracy To Commit Murder," March 16, 2001.
[9] Knut Royce, "Black Muslim Sect Scrutinized," Newsday, June 27, 1993, pg.6.
[10] Howard Pankratz, "Sept. 11 renews al-Fuqra focus Colo. Cell has been linked to deaths, firebombings," The Denver Post, December 16, 2001, pg.A18.
[11] Brad Heath, "Local Muslim Group Denies Terrorist Links," Press & Sun Bulletin, December 20, 2001, pg. 1A.
[12] Ibid.
