Pak ATC denies bail to Times Square bombing suspects

RAWALPINDI - Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) has rejected the bail applications of three persons accused of helping Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad in his attempted car-bombing at Times Square in New York.

Malik Muhammad Akram Awan, a judge of the Anti-Terrorist Court No.1, refused to grant bail to Muhammad Shahid, Hunbal Akhtar and Muhammad Shoaib, who had been arrested from Pakistan for allegedly helping Shahzad, the main suspect behind the Times Square incident, the Daily Times reported.

The counsel for the defendants pleaded that the three accused had no connection with either Shahzad or the ‘attempt to bomb’ incident in New York City.

However, the special prosecutor, proving the connection, said the record showed that Shahid, Akhtar and Shoaib had close contact with Shahzad, and appealed for rejection of the bail on the basis of the proof presented by him before the ATC.fter listening to the arguments of both parties, Judge Awan rejected the bail applications of the three accused.

Shahzad, 30, who was caught just after the doors closed on his Dubai-bound flight at JFK Airport two days after he left an SUV with a crude gasoline-and-propane bomb inside parked on a Times Square street, has been charged with ten counts of terrorism and weapons, by a federal grand jury in New York. (ANI)