Pak ATC frames charges against three aides of Faisal Shahzad

RAWALPINDI - An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan has framed charges against three accused of supporting Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad in an aborted car bombing attack in New York’s Times Square in May this year.

On Saturday, ATC-I judge Malik Muhammad Akram Awan issued a charge sheet against Hambal Khan, Shahid Hussain and Shoaib Mughal, alleging that they were close associates of Shahzad, who had stayed with them during his visit to Pakistan, the Daily Times reported.

According to the charge sheet, they also sent 43,000 dollars to Shahzad through a moneychanger in Islamabad for plotting the car bomb.

The charge sheet also stated the accused were active members of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and that they used to visit Hakeemullah Mehsood.

All the three accused refused to accept the charges, saying that they had nothing to do with the case.

The judge directed the prosecution to present its witnesses on the next hearing, and adjourned the proceedings until November 26.

Earlier in September, the ATC had rejected the bail applications of the trio after the special prosecutor had proved their connection with Shahzad.

30-year-old Shahzad 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. He has been charged with ten counts of terrorism and weapons by a federal grand jury in New York. (ANI)