A Pakistani-born man believed to be responsible for the attempted car bomb attack in Times Square was seized from a jet yesterday seconds before it took off from New York for the Middle East, despite having been placed on a “no-fly” list hours before his arrest. The DoHS (Department of Homeland Security) secretary Janet Napolitano referred to him as an amateur. There was no other information to suggest that there are any other terrorism targets linked to the incident and the evidence so far suggested that this was a “one-off attempt”, Ms Napolitano told Fox News.

The 30 year old suspect, Faisal Shahzad, became a US citizen in April last year. Shahzad had recently come back from a five month trip to his home country, where he spent time in a terrorist training camp. He is being charged with an act of terrorism and using a weapon of mass destruction. During questioning after his arrest, Mr Shahzad implicated himself and told investigators that he had acted alone, but officials said that the investigation was “very much ongoing”.

Soon after his arrest, officials in Karachi said that they had detained several people in connection with the investigation. Among those arrested were the father-in-law and a friend of Mr Shahzad. Pakistani officials said that Shahzad’s friend, Muhammad Rehan, hired a truck and drove Mr to the northwestern city of Peshawar, a hotbed of Taleban and al-Qaeda activity, where they stayed from July 7 until July 22 last year. Rehan, was arrested in the Batkha mosque in the North Nazimabad area after morning prayers.

He was caught after being traced to the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in New York’s Times Square on Saturday evening. Inside was a crude bomb, constructed with petrol, propane, firecrackers and bags of fertilizer, which would have produced a fireball that would have killed passers-by, police say. Investigators used e-mails that Mr Shahzad had sent negotiating the sale, and the telephone number of a disposable mobile telephone he provided, to identify him. Mr Shahzad is married to Huma Mian and has two young children, a boy and a girl, who are believed to be in Pakistan. He graduated in computer studies from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 2000, then returned in 2005 to obtain an MBA.

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