US prosecutors today charged the man accused of trying to explode a car bomb in New York's Times Square with five counts, including trying to explode a weapon of mass destruction, and they said he admitted receiving bomb-making training in Pakistan.
Faisal Shahzad (30) a naturalised US citizen, returned from Pakistan in February and told authorities he spent five months there visiting his parents, according to the criminal complaint filed in District Court in New York.
After being arrested last night at John F Kennedy International Airport trying to leave the country, he admitted to authorities he had tried to detonate a bomb in Times Square on Saturday night, the documents said.
Pakistan today arrested several relatives of the Pakistani-American held in New York on suspicion of driving a bomb-laden car into Times Square, security sources said.
"We have picked up a few family members" related to Shahzad, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also detained.
Shahzad is from the disputed Kashmiri region but it is not known if he was affiliated with any militant group, a source familiar with the investigation said today. The source asked not to be named because the issue is sensitive.
President Barack Obama said today the investigation would seek to determine if the suspect in custody had any connection with foreign extremist groups.
If links were found between the failed bombing and Pakistan's Taliban, which claimed responsibility for it, Pakistan could come under renewed US pressure to open risky new fronts against Islamic militants.
Shahzad and two others were arrested on board the plane after it had pulled away from the gate and was recalled, but the other two were cleared and allowed to travel, the Emirates airline said.
"Clearly the guy was on the plane and shouldn't have been and we got very lucky," New York mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.
Shahzad, who became a US citizen last year, recently visited Pakistan for about five months, returning to the United States in February, the source said.
"Based on our collective experience it's hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own. It seems hard to pull off alone. There's a lot we don't know yet," the source said.
Shahzad is suspected of buying a 1993 Nissan sport utility vehicle used to carry the crude bomb, made of fuel and fireworks, into Times Square as the theater and shopping area was packed with people on a warm Saturday evening.
Authorities searched Shahzad's home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the FBI said today. An FBI spokeswoman did not say what authorities had found.
The Taliban in Pakistan said on Sunday it planted the bomb to avenge the killing in April of al-Qaeda's two top leaders in Iraq as well as US interference in Muslim countries.
Some officials voiced skepticism about the claim.
Pakistan is an ally to the United States and other Nato countries fighting the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan but is also seen as a training ground for Islamist militants.
Saturday's failed bombing was the second significant plot in nine months targeting New York City. An Afghan immigrant, Najibullah Zazi, has pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bombing campaign on Manhattan's subway system last September.
US authorities disrupted that plot before Zazi and his accused accomplices were able to carry it out. Another Afghan-born man has pleaded guilty for his role in the plot.
Zazi later admitted to receiving al-Qaeda training in Pakistan.
Reuters