LeT admits giving 3-month terror training to failed Times Square bomber in PoK: Report

OTTAWA - In the latest and sensational twist to the botched Times Square bombing plot, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander has claimed that Faisal Shahzad, the confessed bomb plotter of Pakistani origin, had received terror training in one of the ‘jihad’ camps of the banned outfit in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

A report in Maclean, Canada’s weekly current affairs magazine, cited an unnamed LeT commander as saying that Shahzad, during his visit to Pakistan in 2006, had visited the LeT’s main base of operations in Dulai, a village situated 25 kilometres away from Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK.

“He was an eager recruit. Very intelligent but also very intense, and driven to make his mark for the sake of Islam,” the magazine quoted the LeT commander, as describing Shahzad.

The LeT commander, however, denied any direct involvement of his organisation with New York bombing plot.

“Shahzad came to us for training. He stayed with us for three months and we provided him with the basics. Then he went back to the U.S,” the commander claimed.

The terror commander added that following the training, Shazad was asked to return back to the US and directed not to contact the LeT, which carried out the ghastly Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, for at least six months.

“After six months, we tried to contact him, but we received no response, not from emails or by telephone. We thought, well, okay, so maybe he’s had a change of heart. We have thousands of recruits who come to us for training. It doesn’t affect us if one of them is lost,’ the magazine quoted the militant leader, as saying.

Recalling Shahzad’s attitude during his terror training, the LeT commander said one thing which was most noticeable in him was that he had a strong desire for glory.

“He wanted to do something big, not just die an anonymous martyr alongside hundreds of other martyrs. He wanted something international. He wanted to be famous. For us, that was angerous. We don’t want attention brought to us, and we were worried that Shahzad’s personal agenda would get him captured and bring the spotlight on us,” the commander said. (ANI)