Pak sets free most terrorists held in connection with failed Times Square bombing

KARACHI - Pakistani intelligence agencies have freed many suspected militants, including two Jaish-e-Muhammed operatives, who were arrested over alleged links with Faisal Shahzad, the American citizen of Pakistani origin who has confessed to have plotted the bungled Times Square bombing.

Sources said intelligence agencies have released most of the 20 members of various banned terror outfits, who were apprehended to probe whether they maintained any links with Shahzad.

They were sent back to their homes on Friday night after they were found innocent. Besides the JeM men, some others had also been released, The Daily Times quoted sources privy to the issue as saying.

It is not clear whether Sheik Mohammed Rehan, a top notch JeM leader, who purportedly drove Shahzad from Karachi to Peshawar in July 2009, was arrested or not.

Pakistan had banned the JeM, the terror group which has close links with Al-Qaeda and primarily targets India, in 2002, but analysts believe that it is receiving continuous help from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Some experts are also of the view that the ISI had actually facilitated the terror group’s formation. (ANI)