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Islamabad, May 5: Pakistani security agencies raided various parts of the country to arrest the accomplices of Pakistani-American (Kashmiri by ethnicity) Faisal Shahzad, arrested for trying to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square.

Four more people are said to have been arrested from Islamabad after Tuesday’s two arrests in Karachi. The Pakistani police, however, claimed at least 10 more arrests.
There were also reports of another friend of Shahzad, Mohammad Rehan, being arrested from Karachi. Official sources say Shahzad had stayed with Rehan in Karachi and both had travelled together to Peshawar.
Some mediapersons, meanwhile, saw Faisal’s father, a retired air vice-marshal of the Pakistan Air Force, leaving with his family for an unknown destination to avoid the media.
In the US, the FBI said, “After the arrest Shahzad admitted he had attempted to detonate a bomb in Times Square. He also admitted that he  had recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan.”
A neighbour, Mohammad Afaq, 35, said he had seen Faisal around January 2010: “I had seen him and could never have guessed he could be a terrorist. He looks very moderate and peace-loving.” He, however, added, “He was talking of Islam this time unlike the last time I saw him.”
Air Vice-Marshal Baharul Haq (Retd) has a brother, Maj. Gen. Tajul Haq (Retd), who served as an I-G of the Frontier Corps. Shahzad, 30, was born in Pabbi, northwest of Islamabad.
Officials said Shahzad had been using three passports, two of them Pakistani, since 2003. Shahzad is believed to have pursued graduation studies from the Pakistan Air Force Government Degree College in Peshawar before leaving for the US for business studies.
 

Shafqat Ali