PAIR BELIEVED TO HAVE TERROR INFO

FORT WORTH, Texas -- With trembling hands and sweaty brows, the two men
questioned by narcotics officers aboard an Amtrak train Sept. 12 were
behaving like typical drug suspects, police said.

But when box cutters, hair dye, various passports and nearly $5,600 in cash
were found in the men's luggage, officers suspected Mohammed Jaweed Azmath
and Ayub Ali Khan could be linked to the terrorist attacks just one day
earlier.

"These guys were very cordial, polite and consented to a search of any
items and their pockets. They were nervous, but I probably would have been,
too, if officers came aboard my train," Sgt. Brad S. Johnson said Thursday.

On Sept. 11, Azmath and Khan boarded a plane in Newark, N.J., bound for San
Antonio. The jet was diverted to St. Louis as flights were grounded.

The men then paid cash in St. Louis for train tickets and police were
tipped off that they might be drug couriers, Johnson said. When their train
stopped in Fort Worth on Sept. 12, undercover officers boarded and found
the men asleep in different cars.

Azmath said he was born in India but had been living in the United States
and working at a newsstand for about $300 a week, Johnson said. The two men
told police they planned to visit a friend in San Antonio, but one said
they would stay a week and the other said the visit would last a month,
police said.

When officers called the travel plans suspicious, Azmath said, "I did not
have anything to do with New York," according to the report.

Azmath and Khan are imprisoned in New York as material witnesses. Law
enforcement officials have told The Associated Press they believe the men
have information relevant to the terrorist attacks.

The FBI has also said authorities may run anthrax tests on items from the
men's Jersey City, N.J., apartment, which reportedly contained magazine
articles about bioterrorism.