A sensation-packed blockbuster movie in the making

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

John F Kennedy airport of New York had rarely witnessed such dramatic scenes. With fighter jets hovering above, smartly dressed sleuths of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ordered the Emirates flight stopped. Worried pilot anxiously applied brakes to the giant flying machine that had just taxied out of the airport on to the tarmac. With his Master’s degree in Business Administration from Connecticut, the 30-year-old Pukhtun, Faisal Shahzad, vaguely knew of what was happening around him. Holding their breath, the airline passengers blinked in disbelief as FBI squad stormed into the Emirates flight and plucked the handsome Pukhtun off Dubai-bound plane. For sensation-hungry spectators, this was probably an ideal script for a Hollywood thriller.

Within hours of his arrest, well-informed section of media started giving updates on the emotion-packed drama. Second son of Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) Bahar-ul-Haq, Shahzad was a Pakistani-born naturalised American citizen. Private television channels showed AVM’s native home in village Mohib Banda near Pabbi in district Nowshera as well as his sprawling bungalow No.139 in Street No.6 of Hayatabad’s posh Phase IV. On hearing the news of Shahzad’s arrest, however, the AVM had quietly moved out. While on way to the federal capital, he was taken into protective custody in Hassanabdal by law enforcing agencies.

US authorities had planned to arrest Shahzad, who had been on constant watch from mid-afternoon on May 5, at his modest Connecticut home, but they simply lost track of him. According to the criminal report filed in federal court in Manhattan, Shahzad confessed to buying a sport utility vehicle, SUV, (a rugged vehicle with a truck-like chassis and four-wheel drive, designed for occasional off-road use), rigging it with homemade bomb and driving it into the busy Times Square reportedly to kill tourists and theatergoers. He was also said to have told investigators that he trained in bomb making at a militant camp in North Waziristan.

In a story datelined Islamabad, woman correspondent Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times on Sunday that American military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley A McChrystal met COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on May 7 and called upon him to mount a cleanup operation in North Waziristan against what the paper said were Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda. Though the planned bombing in Times Square proved abortive, Shahzad’s ability to move back and forth between United States and Pakistan heightened fears in the Obama administration that another attempt at terrorist attack could succeed.

Shahzad’s arrest came amid increasing debate within the Obama administration about how to expand the American influence – even a boots-on-the-ground presence – on Pak soil. The issue has been a source of growing tension between Washington and Islamabad. Already alarmed by the increasing drone attacks and the resultant deaths even of non-combatants, the officials have been touchy about the idea of involving American ground troops in the battle. NYT correspondent, for instance, pointed to the fact that attempts by the United States to increase the presence of ‘special operations forces’ in the region even in an advisory or training role have been met by great resistance by Pak officials.

In her dispatch, Jane Perlez quoted McChrystal as having told General Kayani that “you can’t pretend any longer that this (attempt by Shahzad-like men to attack America) is not going on. We are saying you have got to go into North Waziristan”. In the backdrop of Shahzad episode, Washington plans to impress on Islamabad the urgency of getting the American development aid in place in tribal areas where militancy thrives and in Karachi where radical religious schools enjoy varying degrees of popularity.

On television talk shows and in print media, one finds cynical analysts, the likes of General (Retd) Hamid Gul, Tehrik-i-Insaf chief, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and the Jamaat-i-Islami chief, Munawar Hassan, who take the Shahzad incident lock, stock and barrel as a US conspiracy to drive Pak army into bombing North Waziristan. Jane Perlez also referred to this conspiracy theory. Many of the countrymen believe that Shahzad is an American citizen who was radicalised in the United States by difficulties that he found living there as a Muslim.

Independent observers watched with interest how Tehrik-i-Taliban-i-Pakistan (TTP) instantly jumped on the opportunity and claimed responsibility for the aborted Times Square attempt. However, it soon backed out of its claim when it realised the gravity of the situation. It feared that an early claim to own the Shahzad adventurism might result into a direct attack on the North Waziristan enclave either by the American forces or Pak army itself.

While dwelling on the Shahzad syndrome in the context of Muslim feelings towards the West, television talk show hosts and columnists are extra careful and make it clear that Shahzad is not their hero before yielding to the possessive imperial strain: “Har mulk, mulk-i-ma ast ke mulk-i-Khuda-i-ma ast!” (Every land that belongs to God is ours!).

With their conviction in “live and let others live in peace”, ordinary Pakistanis feel gratified to note that hundreds of lives may well have been saved on the night of May 1 by the quick action of common citizens and law enforcement authorities that first saw the smoking SUV, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, parked in Times Square.

Having sentimental temperament, some countrymen tend to admire the Don Quixote in Shahzad. After studying in an army school in Peshawar, Shahzad went abroad and graduated from the University of Bridgeport with a bachelor’s degree in computer applications and information systems in 2001. Later, he did his Master’s in Business Administration from Connecticut. Father of a girl and a boy, he lived with his wife Huma Mian in Shelton, Connecticut. In early April, 19-year-old Peggy Colas of Bridgeport and her father sold the SUV to Shahzad by receiving $1, 300 as against the advertised price of $1, 800. It was basically the description of Shahzad given by the car sellers that helped police track him down with the vehicle’s identification number stamped on its engine.