ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's military warned Wednesday that it had yet to establish a link between the Pakistani-American charged with trying to bomb New York and the country's main militant stronghold in Waziristan.
Army spokesman Athar Abbas told AFP that a link between Faisal Shahzad and Waziristan had “yet to be established”.

“Until and unless the link is established, it will be premature to say that he had gone there,” he said.

According to the US criminal complaint, Shahzad admitted “after his arrest that he had received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan.”

The alleged visit to the Al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border presumably occurred during a five-month trip the complaint says Shahzad made to Pakistan.

He returned on February 3 without his wife and told immigration officials that he had been visiting his parents, the complaint said.

Waziristan is the powerbase of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has been the only militant group to claim Saturday's attempted bomb attack, albeit in a move widely disputed in Pakistan and the United States.

“As for the TTP claim, anybody can get up and claim anything. We have to see the capability and reach of the organisation... so that is questionable,” said Abbas.

TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in two videos purportedly made last month in which he threatened to attack US cities. – AFP

Source: Dawn News





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