Army major arrested for links to NY bomb plot

AFP

WP report says major met Shahzad in Islamabad and had phone contact with him

WASHINGTON: An army major has been arrested in connection with the failed bombing earlier this month in New York's Times Square, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

New York City Police Department Counter Terrorism Unit officers patrol in Times Square on May 5. A Pakistani army major has been arrested in connection with the failed bombing earlier this month in New York's Times Square, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

If the report, which quoted Pakistani law enforcement sources, is confirmed, it would the first time someone in Pakistan's military establishment implicated in the botched car bombing plot.

Chief suspect Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born US citizen whose father was a senior official in Pakistan's air force, made his first court appearance on Tuesday in New York and did not enter a plea over the May 1 incident.

Shahzad, 30, was arrested apparently trying to flee the country on a flight to Dubai 53 hours after street vendors alerted police to smoke coming out of the vehicle in New York's theatre district on a busy Saturday night.

The Washington Post said the extent of the major's alleged involvement remained unclear, but that unnamed law enforcement sources told the paper he had met Shahzad in Islamabad and had cell phone contact with him.

According to the newspaper a second suspect being held by the Pakistani authorities acted as a liaison between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban - blamed by the US for being behind the attempted Times Square attack.

Pakistani law enforcement sources told the paper Shahzad met the suspect three times last summer and at one meeting gave him an undisclosed sum of money for the attempted bombings. afp