New York, NY – Militant Group Causes Terror Concerns after Taking Photos of Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges

New York, NY – A follower of an Islamic militant group caused a previously undisclosed scare when someone in his truck took cell phone photos of the support structures of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges.

The NYPD uncovered the suspected reconnaissance mission in Manhattan while investigators already were on alert that Pakistani immigrants loyal to the radical Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba, were in the city “and possibly up to no good,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s top spokesman.

The NYPD credited one of its intelligence analysts with piecing together the evidence that the suspect, Akhtar Hussain Muawia, had used an alias to slip into the United States after the assassination of a Shiite leader and was working as a clerk at a Jersey City, NJ, grocery, across the Hudson River from New York.
Muawia, 33, was detained and is now fighting deportation. His attorney has denied he was involved in the killing or any acts of terrorism. [AP]