Six people in the US and Pakistan have been charged with providing financing and material support to the Pakistani Taliban.
The indictment was announced by the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and local FBI agents at a time when US relations with Pakistan are strained over the US raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Three of the accused, who are all originally from Pakistan, were US citizens arrested in South Florida and Los Angeles.
They include two Imans, or Muslim religious leaders, from mosques in Florida.
The other three charged were living in Pakistan and still at large.
All six were charged in a four-count indictment with being involved in a conspiracy to 'murder, maim and kidnap persons overseas,' as well with conspiring to provide material support to the Pakistani Taliban.
Each face up to 15 years in prison per count.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the recent double suicide bombing of a paramilitary police training center in northwest Pakistan that killed 89 people, in an attack it said was to avenge bin Laden's death at the hands of US forces.
US Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said in announcing the indictment that
'despite being an imam, or spiritual leader, Hafiz Khan was by no means a man of peace.'
The five men and one woman were accused of using an elaborate system of bank accounts and wire transfers to send funding from the United States to Pakistan, in part to sustain militants and their families.
