Washington, May 14 (Inditop.com) The Pakistani government has arrested a suspect with connections to a Pakistani militant group who said he acted as an accomplice to Times Square bombing supect, the Washington Post reported citing US officials.
The suspect, whose arrest has not been previously disclosed, provided an “independent stream” of evidence that the Pakistani Taliban were behind the attempt and has admitted helping Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad travel into Pakistan’s tribal belt for bomb training.
The influential US daily Thursday cited officials familiar with the investigation as cautioning about inconsistencies in the two suspects’ accounts.
Indeed, the US determination that the Pakistani Taliban directed the attempted attack is based largely on accounts given by the two men, several US officials cited by the daily said.
Authorities have been examining phone records, e-mail and other communication to see whether they contain firmer evidence of links between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban.
The suspect in Pakistani custody “is believed to have a connection to the TTP,” the daily said citing a US intelligence official, using an acronym for the Pakistani Taliban.
Clues have added to authorities’ understanding of the plot, the official said, but “what is definitely true is that a lot of this comes from the statements of people directly involved.”
In a report from Islamabad, the Post cited Pakistani security officials as saying that they had made no progress in finding concrete or credible evidence linking Shahzad to any Islamic militant activity in Pakistan or suggesting that he had travelled to the northwest and received training from the Pakistani Taliban.
US officials cited by the Post declined to identify the suspect in Pakistan, but said American investigators have had direct access to him, and described him as a facilitator for the Pakistani Taliban.
US investigators have pieced together their understanding of the Times Square plot largely by comparing the man’s accounts with those of Shahzad. The broad outlines of their stories have been consistent, officials said, describing Shahzad’s arrival in Karachi last year and his travel north to Waziristan for training with elements of the Pakistani Taliban.
But a second US official told the Post there are some “conflicts, disconnects” in their accounts. These have raised some questions about the reliability of the suspects’ information, but have not cast significant doubt on the overall understanding of the plot, officials said.
