Faisal Shahzad's Dad: Was My Son Inspired by Taliban?

(May 6) -- The anguished father of Faisal Shahzad says he fears the Times Square bombing suspect fell under the Pakistani Taliban's spell, the British tabloid The Sun reports today.

A Sun reporter caught up with Shahzad's father, retired Pakistan Air Force Vice Marshal Bahar ul-Haq, in a suburb of the northwest Pakistani city Peshawar.

"How can I appeal for his release if he's really involved in the terror plan?" Haq asked. "I need to see what happens and then I will contact the government. I don't know the truth. But I am not sure he is doing all this."

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Arrest Brings Pakistani Terror to Fore
Video Footage Proves Key in Case
Shahzad's Father Anguished
Profile: Shahzad's Path
Shahzad's Pakistan Past
Shahzad Met Top Taliban Leader?
Grid: 30 Years of Terror Incidents

Shahzad, a 30-year-old naturalized American, is in U.S. custody on charges of terrorism and weapons offenses. He's accused of parking an SUV loaded with firecrackers, gasoline, propane and fertilizer in New York's Times Square on Saturday night, rigged to explode into what authorities say could have been a fireball big enough to kill tourists and Broadway theatergoers.

His father, who at one time was deputy director of Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority, told the Sun he doesn't know of any links his son had to the Taliban or al-Qaida.

"This is at least what I know. We are liberal people," Haq said.

But a neighbor of the Haq family in Peshawar, Mohammad Afaq, said he believes Shahzad had become more religious recently.

"Shahzad looks moderate and peace-loving, but he talked of Islam the last time I saw him," Afaq was quoted as saying.