The Mounties have announced criminal charges against two former Winnipeg residents who they claim travelled to Pakistan to train as terrorists, so they could fight alongside insurgents in Afghanistan.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bill Robinson told reporters on Tuesday that a years-long investigation has led to charges against Ferid Ahmed Imam, 30, and Maiwand Yar, 27.

Following the announcement, U.S. authorities filed charges against Imam for a role he allegedly played in connection to a foiled al Qaeda plot to blow up New York City subways in September 2008.

Both of the Winnipeg men were attending post-secondary institutions in Manitoba when they abruptly left the country in March 2007.

Yar was soon reported missing and police began investigating his disappearance.

Within days, the police probe "had evolved into a national security investigation," Robinson told reporters in Winnipeg.

Robinson said RCMP investigators have since interviewed more than 40 witnesses "and acquired academic, passport, banking, travel, email and phone records and letters believed to be authored by Yar."

The RCMP believe that Yar and Imam began making plans in December 2006 to travel to Pakistan to obtain terrorist training. They allege that the Canadian men then planned to cross the Afghan border to fight against its government and NATO forces with like-minded insurgents.

Robinson said Yar and Imam entered Pakistan on tourist visas, landing at Karachi International Airport. They purchased round-trip tickets, but had not returned to Canada by the time their visas expired.

"There are no records of Yar or Imam leaving Pakistan through any major departure points," Robinson said.

Robinson said the missing men are known to have travelled to Peshawar, a city that lies close to the Afghan border and is located in a region "in which terrorist groups operate."

Additionally, the Mounties claim that Yar told others that he and Imam planned to go to Pakistan "to ally themselves with the Taliban and to attend a training camp in order to receive instruction in the use of firearms, scouting, guerilla warfare training and explosives."

Did U.S. man meet Canadian in terror camp?

Robinson said an American citizen named Zarein Ahmedzay claims to have seen Iman working as a weapons instructor at a Peshawar camp a year after the Canadians arrived in Pakistan.

Ahmedzay went to Pakistan in August 2008, with Najibullah Zazi, a high school friend and fellow American to seek out terrorist training and join the fight in Afghanistan. The two men would later return to the U.S. with plans to detonate homemade bombs on a New York City subway train. The plot was foiled before it could be enacted and Zazi and Ahmedzay have since pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offences in the U.S.

"Ahmedzay was able to positively identify Imam in a photograph," Robinson said, with the U.S. man describing the missing Canadian as "a weapons instructor who went by the name of Yousef at the terrorist training camp in Peshawar."

U.S. authorities confirmed on Tuesday that they had charged Imam in connection to the foiled New York subway attack. Court papers filed in Brooklyn allege Imam was part of the conspiracy to attack the subways with suicide bombers.

The whereabouts of Yar and Imam are currently unknown and the RCMP investigation continues. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-420-5805.

Robinson said the RCMP are "currently seeking Yar and Imam with the aim of bringing them to justice in an open and fair judicial system."

He also said the investigation "targets criminal activity and not specific communities or groups."

Imam has been charged with instructing to carry out terrorism activities and conspiracy to participate in activity of a terrorist group.

Yar is being sought on charges of conspiracy to participate in activity of a terrorist group and participation in activity of a terrorist group.