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New York car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad 'knew key militants'
TIMES Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad's family knew at least two key Pakistani militants who were involved in terrorist activities, AFP reports, citing The Los Angeles Times.Citing an unnamed US Government source, the newspaper said the circle of acquaintances included someone who became a Taliban leader and another who took part in the "2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India," in which 166 people died. The newspaper said US officials believe the Pakistani-born Mr Shahzad's family background may help explain why he grew radicalised and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban on the internet. "What we don't know is if he was actively recruited by these guys or if he recruited himself," the paper quotes a senior US official as saying. Mr Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen whose large but poorly made bomb failed to detonate in New Tork's Times Square a week ago, has undergone extensive questioning ever since he was arrested Monday aboard a plane as it prepared to take off for Dubai. The 30-year-old son of a retired Pakistani Air Force officer has not asked for a lawyer during questioning, officials said. He has not yet appeared in court on the five terror charges he faces after waiving his right to a speedy arraignment. But it has since been learned that Mr Shahzad was driven by Sheikh Mohammed Rehan, a known militant, from Karachi to Peshawar in July 2009, and then on to the Waziristan area and its training camps there, The Times said. Pakistani and US investigators overnight questioned four alleged Islamist militants - including Sheikh Rehan - who may have had contact with Mr Shahzad. The overseas portion of the investigation was focusing on Karachi, a southern port city of 18 million people where police this week detained the four alleged militants, The Wall Street Journal reported. The men are believed to belong to Jaish-e-Muhammad, one of several Pakistani extremist groups active in the border regions near Afghanistan. Sheikh Rehan was picked up Tuesday morning at the Bathha Mosque in a middle-class suburb of Karachi, where Mr Shahzad's father-in-law and his family also live, according to Pakistani police and intelligence operatives. Mr Shahzad's father-in-law, Iftikhar Mian, is believed to have lived around the corner from the mosque in a middle-class neighborhood of large houses. Mr Mian and Mr Shahzad's father were also being questioned by authorities, one official said. Separately, a senior Pakistani official said Mr Shahzad's wife and children were in Saudi Arabia. Authorities formerly believed they were in Pakistan. Before Shahzad moved to the US, he lived in Karachi with his father, retired Air Vice Marshall Bahaur ul Haq, in the early 1990s. His father then worked for Pakistan's civil-aviation authority and Mr Shahzad is believed to have attended a military school in Karachi. Mr Haq and other close family members, who now live in the northwestern city of Peshawar, were under the protection of security forces at an undisclosed location but have not been arrested, Pakistani officials said. Posted by: tipper 2010-05-08 |
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