New York blast: Police say bomber had no criminal record in Bangladesh

Akayed Ullah had entered the US through “extended-family chain migration,” a system President Donald Trump is seeking to end that allows families to sponsor relatives to come to the US.

The Bangladeshi ISIS sympathiser who detonated a homemade pipe bomb in New York City’s subway had no criminal record back home, a police official said today, even as Dhaka vowed “zero tolerance” against terrorism.

A policeman stands guard in Times Square not far from the site of a pipe bomb explosion on December 11, 2017 in New York City. (AFP Photo)

Akayed Ullah, 27, set off the crude bomb strapped to his body in the crowded subway passage between New York’s Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal at rush hour yesterday but the device failed to detonate properly, leaving him and three others injured.

“Passports to one is issued after verifying his or her past records and the suspect named for the New York attack had no criminal record,” the official told PTI.

Ullah, who moved to the US seven years ago, has an address in Brooklyn, an area with most residents from Bangladesh.

He had entered the US through “extended-family chain migration,” a system President Donald Trump is seeking to end that allows families to sponsor relatives to come to the US.

The Bangladesh embassy in Washington condemned the attack in New York reiterating its “zero tolerance” stance against terrorism.

“Government of Bangladesh is committed to its declared policy of ‘zero tolerance’ against terrorism, and condemns terrorism and violent extremism in all forms or manifestations anywhere in the world, including yesterday’s incident in New York City,” the embassy said in a statement shortly it became known that the attacker was of Bangladeshi-origin.

“A terrorist is a terrorist irrespective of his or her ethnicity or religion, and must be brought to justice,” it added.

Bangladesh has been waging a war against homegrown extremism in the wake of numerous attacks by radical groups in recent years.

On July 1, militants stormed a Dhaka cafe in which 22 people, including 17 foreigners, were killed. An Indian girl was among those killed in Bangladesh’s worst terror attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

The secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has vowed to root out extremism but says international radical groups do not operate inside Bangladesh.