Times Square plotter ‘planned second bomb attack’

NEW YORK - Failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad has said that he had planned to detonate a second bomb in New York.

The confession was disclosed in new court documents that says that the Pakistani-born US citizen should get life in prison at his scheduled sentencing next week.

The prosecutors argued that Shahzad had “every intention of delivering a powerful and terrorising strike to the heart of New York City”.

Shahzad also said that he thought the first bomb, which failed to go off, would kill at least 40 people.

“According to Shahzad, he wanted to select the busiest time for pedestrian traffic in Times Square because pedestrians walking on the streets would be easier to kill and injure than people driving in cars,” The New York Times quoted the court documents, as saying.

The prosecutors further said that Shahzad had left the US in 2009 to learn how to build bombs and attack targets in the country.

“I have been trying to join my brothers in jihad since 9/11 happened. I am planning to wage an attack inside America,” Shahzad said in a 40-minute video released by the prosecutors.

Shahzad was arrested two days after the attempted May 1 bomb attack in New York’s Times Square, where the explosives he had packed into the back of a vehicle failed to detonate.

He pleaded guilty to 10 weapons and terrorism charges in June. (ANI)