Pak immigrant guilty of New York subway blast

A Pakistani immigrant has been convicted for plotting to blow up a busy underground train station in Manhattan angered by the United States attack on Iraq, despite defence arguments that he was enticed by a paid police informer.

After two days of deliberations, a New York jury found Shahawar Martin Siraj guilty on conspiracy and all other counts after a four-week trial that brought to focus the intensive monitoring that intelligence agencies carried out of radical Muslims and mosques after the September 11 terrorist attacks in US.

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Siraj, who had taken stand in his defence, heard the verdict with downcast eyes. He had no connection with any known terrorist organisation.

The 23-year-old Pakistani and another man suspected to have conspired in the plot, James Elshafay were arrested on the eve 2004 Republican Convention in New York from Herald Square Station and were found to be carrying crude diagrams of the area they wanted to target. Elshafay immediately agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Siraj had come to attention of a 50-year-old police informer Osama Eldawoody, an Egyptian-born nuclear engineer for his ranting against the United States.

Elshafay was wired during his conversations with Siraj. He posed as his accomplice and told the Pakistani that he would have the full support of a fictitious organisation called 'The Brotherhood.'