Bangladeshi terror suspect arrested in New York

, Oct 18: A Bangladeshi man was arrested in New York on Thursday for allegedly trying to use a 1,000 pound bomb to destroy the Federal Reserve building. The man, Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested in Manhattan after he tried to detonate what he presumed to be a live bomb but was actually a dummy used in a sting operation, federal prosecutors said. Nafis allegedly has links with terror outfit al-Qaeda.

The federal prosecutor's office in Brooklyn said that Nafis had travelled to the USA in January this year with an aim to carry out a terror attack in the country.

The office also said that the man attempted to recruit people to form a terrorist cell in the USA. According to the federal prosecutors, the youth looked for al-Qaeda contacts within the USA to help him carry out the attack but to his ignorance, two of the individuals he wanted to take in his team actually worked for the FBI.

The Bangladeshi man also allegedly wrote a statement claiming the responsibility for the attack and vowed to destroy the USA. He also referred to Osama bin Laden, the former al-Qaeda leader who was killed by US troops in Pakistan last year, as "beloved". Nafis has also been accused of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.

The Federal Reserve building, which Nafis had planned to attack, is part of the network that makes up the US central bank and is home to one of the world's largest gold deposits. It also consists of bullion belonging to other nations. Complaints also allege that Nafis had also proposed other possible targets of attack, including the New York Stock Exchange and a top US official.

OneIndia News