Pak Origin US National Arrested in Times Square Bomb Case

In the failed Times Square car bombing case, a young American national of Pakistani origin has been taken into custody, reported Washington Post.

Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr announced early Tuesday that Faisal Shahzad, 30, was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport as he tried to fly to Dubai on Monday night, said report.

Officials learnt about Shahzad’s identity on Monday afternoon, and he was arrested at about 11:45 pm, after a sweeping two-day probe, report said.

Authorities said that Shahzad’s flight to Dubai had left the gate and was headed toward the runway when authorities discovered that he was on board and wanted. He was removed from the plane and taken into custody

Officials said that Shahzad, who lived in Connecticut, had paid cash for a Nissan Pathfinder found with explosives after it was set ablaze but failed to detonate on Saturday night on a tourist-crowded block in midtown Manhattan, report said.

According to Obama administration, the probe produced a flood of domestic and international clues indicating that the plot involved more than one person, said report.

“It was clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans,” Holder was quoted as saying at a rare middle-of-the-night news conference at the Justice Department, nearly three hours after the suspect was pulled from an international flight that had already left the departure gate.

Officials said that President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident, report said.

The failed Times Square car bombing bore some resemblance to the attempted bombing of an airliner in Detroit last Christmas Day, with citizen watchdogs earning much of the credit for averting the crisis and the White House scrambling to discover clues about a young male suspect with apparent ties that stretched beyond the United States.