Pak Army Major arrested over alleged links with failed Times Square bomber

LOS ANGELES - Pakistani security agencies have reportedly arrested an Army major, who is said to have had contacts with Faisal Shahzad, the US civilian of Pakistan origin accused of plotting the botched Times Square bombing.

It is for the first time that a Pakistan Army official has been linked directly in the failed bombing plot, however, authorities are mum on the major’s links with Shahzad.

Sources privy to the arrest said that the military official had met Shahzad and that both had frequent chats over the cellphone also, The Los Angeles Times reports.

Meanwhile, US and Pakistani agencies continue to investigate Shahzad’s terror trail, and the truth behind his claims that he had met the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistani (TTP) chieftain Hakimullah Mehsud during one of his many visits to the extremist stronghold North Waziristan.

Shahzad, who appeared in a court in New York on Tuesday, has told U.S. investigators that he had gone to North Waziristan, where he met with Taliban leaders and got training in bombmaking.

According to Pakistani and US officials briefed about the investigations, Shahzad had likely visited Mohmand, a lawless tribal region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border which is considered as the hub of the Taliban and other extremist outfits. (ANI)