Pakistan holds two over funding Times Square plot

Pakistani authorities have taken into custody at least two men who may have helped provide funding for a botched car-bombing in New York's Times Square, US officials said on Saturday.

Pakistani authorities have taken into custody at least two men who may have helped provide funding for a botched car-bombing in New York's Times Square, US officials said on Saturday.

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The men are believed to be associated with the Pakistani Taliban movement and to have helped provide an estimated $15,000 to accused Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, to plan and execute the attack, one of the officials said.

But two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US investigators have yet to establish that Shahzad had direct ties to any known Pakistani Taliban leaders, who have claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.

Establishing direct links between Shahzad and the Pakistani Taliban could increase pressure on Islamabad to broaden its military offensive against militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

"This is an investigation that is still ongoing. We don't have perfect knowledge yet about how this was done," one of the US officials said.

He has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people.