FBI questions Shirley man over possible tie to Shahzad

Mohammad Iqbal got back to his Shirley home from work about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, at the end of his shift driving a limousine, and was awakened by knocks on the door at 6 a.m.

It was two FBI investigators, flashing their badges. Iqbal, in an interview, said they searched his home and questioned him for more than five hours about whether he was involved in a terrorist plot to detonate a car bomb in Times Square - an incident Iqbal said he had nothing to do with.

"I've got nothing to hide," he said. "They went through everything. You could say they went through my socks."

A Pakistani Muslim from Punjab province who said he moved to America in 1995, Iqbal, 46, said the investigators were interested in talking about his connection to Muhammad Younis, a Centereach man who FBI agents also were seen talking to Thursday.

Iqbal said he told the agents he knows Younis and that he "doesn't see anything" about Younis that could link him to terrorism.

The experience left Iqbal shaken. He said he signed a consent form for a search of his home on Free State Drive on a tree-lined residential street of single- and multifamily homes.

The investigators' main focus was Younis, he said.

Iqbal told reporters he has no political agenda and had never heard of accused Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad until he was on the news.

He described the FBI search as "calm," although agents took pictures of everything, copied his computer's hard drive and took a cell phone. Agents also found a diary that had Younis' name in it, he said.

The agents asked Iqbal if he recently had sent any money to Pakistan, and he said he doesn't know anybody there.

Iqbal said he and Younis know each other from working together at a 7-Eleven convenience store in East Patchogue in the mid-1990s. They also lived together briefly as roommates, he said.

Iqbal described Younis as "not bad people" and a calming influence.

"I do have an anger problem - you curse me, I'll curse you right back. He'll just walk away," he said.

He said he last spoke with Younis a few days ago, just to say hello.

Iqbal said while he thought the FBI search was fair, he felt targeted because of his Muslim background.

"I feel terrible. I feel like I was treated like a . . . in front of my five kids," he said, though he added that "they were just doing their job."

He said his 5-year-old daughter, who witnessed the search, was terrified by the ordeal. He and his wife have five children, who range in age from 2 1/2 to 9.

"The neighbors, what are they going to think of me now?" he said.

Iqbal said part of the reason he cooperated with the FBI is because "otherwise how will they find these people" who were complicit in the crime.

Iqbal said he believed the FBI was done questioning him after they left. By 7 p.m., he was tired and frustrated that he was going to miss a day of work.

As the sun started to set, an ice cream truck drove slowly down Free State Drive, and Iqbal treated his children to ice cream bars.