US citizen of Pak origin admits to planting Times Square bomb

m.today

New York, May 5: Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, has confessed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he was behind the car bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square.

 

He has admitted that he had tried to explode the car bomb in Times Square and had received bomb-making training in Waziristan, the militant stronghold of western Pakistan.

A resident of Connecticut, Faisal was arrested as his Dubai bound Emirates flight was about to take off from Kennedy Airport.

Federal officials had placed him on a "no-fly" list hours before his arrest.  The Federal Aviation Administration at Kennedy airport has now released an audio recording of a control tower operator instructing the pilot of Dubai-bound Emirates flight 202 to "go back to the gate immediately".

The 30-year-old has been charged with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction and several related crimes as the investigation into Saturday night’s failed car bombing in the heart of Manhattan widened rapidly on two continents, with Pakistani authorities arresting several people.

Who is Faisal Shahzad?

Faisal is the son of a retired Air Vice Marshal Bahar-ul-Haque, a former head of Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. His family comes from Peshawar, close to Taliban strongholds.

He was married two years ago and has two children. His wife and one child are believed to be living in Karachi.

Two arrested in Pakistan:

Pakistani authorities have detained two persons in Karachi for their alleged links with Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American who has been arrested in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb attack.
    
Security officials, who declined to be named, confirmed at least two detentions but did not reveal further details.
   
According to other sources, a person identified as Tauseef Ahmed was one of the detainees. Ahmed had made several contacts with Faisal in the last few weeks and had even gone to the US sometime back on his invitation, they said.
   
The other person picked up was related to Faisal who originally belonged to the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), they said.
   
A television news channel reported that Tauseef’s wife had claimed that her husband was innocent and being made a scapegoat.
   
"My husband has done nothing wrong he was only friendly with Faisal Shahzad but he is not involved in such activities.

They have picked him up without any reason," she was quoted as saying by the TV channel.
   
Pakistan has vowed to help and cooperate with the United States in the investigations into the failed car bomb attack.
   
Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalised US citizen, was taken into custody on Monday from the JFK Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai.

Faisal studied and worked in US before becoming a naturalized citizen in 2009.