Pakistan vowed today to help the United States bring to justice a Pakistani-American arrested in the United States in connection with a failed car bomb in New York’s Times Square at the weekend.
Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested on Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai, U.S. officials said.
Faisal will appear in Manhattan federal court later on Tuesday to face charges “for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,” according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, FBI agent George Venizelos and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
“We will cooperate with the United States in identifying this individual and bringing him to justice,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters.
Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said they were awaiting details from the U.S. authorities about Faisal.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States and has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda operatives and handed over many of them to the United States after it signed up to the U.S.-led war on terrorism after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
The Taliban in Pakistan said on Sunday it planted the bomb in Times Square to avenge the killing in April of al Qaeda’s two top leaders in Iraq as well as U.S. interference in Muslim countries.
Some officials voiced skepticism about the claim. But former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel, who last year oversaw an Obama administration strategy review on Afghanistan and Pakistan, cautioned against dismissing a possible role by the Taliban.