Pakistani Taliban deny link to New York bomb plot

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Taliban Thursday denied any link to the botched attempt to explode a car bomb in New York’s landmark Times Square.

Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised US citizen of Pakistani origin, faces terrorism charges for planting the bomb and US officials say the suspect has admitted to receiving training in Pakistan’s militancy-plagued tribal region.

“We do not know Faisal Shahzad. He is not a member of our network neither have we provided any assistance to him,” said Azam Tariq, chief spokesman of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Despite denials from the Taliban, indications are mounting that Shahzad, the son of a former air vice marshal, might have links with some militant groups in Pakistan.

The US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks terrorist groups online, said Sunday it had discovered a video posted by TTP in which the group claimed the responsibility for the incident.

But Tariq told DPA Monday in his first-ever response to the Time Square bombing attempt that his group had not placed the video on the YouTube website.

“When we want to carry out any attack we have the ability to do it by our own resources,” said Tariq, warning that the TTP was planning “destructive suicide attacks in America”.

“The Americans have waged a war on us with the drones and we will take revenge for that.”

The militant spokesman however praised Shahzad’s plan that if successful could “teach a lesson to the Americans who are committing crimes against Muslims.”

A street vendor in Times Square Saturday spotted smoke rising from a parked vehicle and alerted police, who discovered a homemade bomb that failed to detonate.

A senior Pakistani security official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that authorities had arrested a friend of Shahzad for his suspected links with terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The arrest took place in the southern port city of Karachi, where 30-year-old Shahzad spent five years. His in-laws still reside in the city.

A Pakistan Army spokesman expressed doubts Wednesday that Pakistani Taliban had the ability to carry out attacks overseas, but Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that it was unlikely that Shahzad acted alone.