FBI focusing on Pak Taliban role in failed Times Square attack

Washington, May 5 (ANI): Federal Bureau of Investigation sleuths have reportedly shifted the focus of their probe to the role of the Pakistani Taliban in the failed Times Square bombing.

Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen arrested in connection with the incident, is said to have told FBI agents that he received bomb-making training in a region of Pakistan known as a militant hotbed.

According to the Washington Post, his reported confession, combined with a series of phone calls he received from Pakistan after purchasing the Nissan Pathfinder used in the attempted bombing, has led investigators to zero in on the Pakistani Taliban connection as "a leading theory," a federal law enforcement official said.

"It's a leading line of inquiry. There are only a few organizations in Pakistan that could provide training, and the Pakistani Taliban is . . . one that has an ax to grind with us," the official told the paper on condition of anonymity.

The Pakistan Taliban has already claimed responsibility for Saturday night's attempt, which investigators are reevaluating after initially downplaying the claim.

The incident has resurrected the controversy over the Obama administration's handling of the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Critics said the suspect in that case should have been placed in a military, rather than civilian, court.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said, "It is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in our country."

Shahzad has been charged with attempting to detonate the sport-utility vehicle that was set ablaze on a tourist-crowded block in Midtown Manhattan and trying to kill bystanders and destroy property. (ANI)