Islamanbad, May 08: The US has dispatched a team of FBI agents to Islamabad to probe into the failed Times Square bombing in New York amid reported US plans to expand its forces in Pakistan.
According to Pakistani officials, a team of FBI investigators arrived in Islamabad, where the agency has a legal attaché office that cooperates with Pakistani law enforcement and intelligence officers, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Some senior US officials have claimed that the Pakistani American suspect in the alleged car bombing attempt — Faisal Shahzad — had received financial resources from abroad to carry out the attack.
In the US, investigators are reportedly conducting interogations with alleged entities that are suspected of involvement in the bombing plot.
Meanwhile, a senior US law enforcement agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that “no one is subject to imminent arrest.”
“There is a lot of money,” he added, referring to recent claims that Shahzad had brought $80,000 in cash into the United States when he returned from overseas trips between 1999 and 2008.
The unnamed law enforcement official said, “To get that kind of money, the theory is you have someone help you move it.”
The arrival of the investigation team in Islamabad came after The New York Times quoted officials within the Obama administration as saying that the US was looking into further expansion of its missions in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is reported to have pledged “complete cooperation” with the US in the investigations into the alleged New York bombing attempt.
“The investigation is underway and Pakistan has said very clearly that we will provide complete cooperation. We will share whatever information we have with them and they will share [information] with us,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said.
—Agencies