Two Young Muslim Friends Of Tsarnaev Arrested

The fiery debate that ensued after Bob Beckel’s statement that the United States should consider a moratorium on student visas for Muslim immigrants may have been stoked further, as two Muslims in America on student visas who were friendly with Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been arrested and detained for administrative immigrant violations.

Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both citizens of Kazakhstan, were noticed with Tsarnaev in a photo from April 2012 in Times Square. Police and New York City officials have stated that Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamberlan planned an attack on Times Square after their Boston attack. New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said,  “We learned through the Joint Terrorist Task Force that the Boston Marathon bombers had planned to travel to Manhattan to detonate remaining bombs in Times Square,”

Kadyrbayev is a former student and Tazhayakov now attends UMass Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev is a sophomore. Kadyrbayev’s father, Murat Kadyrbayev, said his son and Tazhayakov were only friends with Tsarnaev. When he was asked about the license plate on a BMW the two young men owned which read TERRORISTA #1, he replied it was just a joke.

Yerlan Kubashev with the Consulate General for Kazakhstan, which has helped the two men find lawyers, said they are “shocked at the bombings,” and “they express sorrow to the bombing victims and their families.”