Impotent suicide bombing in New York
December 11 2017 By Abiodun Giwa
There was a failed terror attack early on Monday morning at the New York City 42nd Street train station. A pipe bomb strapped on by the suspect went off injuring him, but unable to claim any innocent life.
The incident at a very busy time that workers were hurrying to work at 7:30 am, was a reminder of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's episode on a Delta flight, when a bomb he had in his underwear went off, but failed to achieve its damaging objective.
The New Yorks Port Authority had confirmed the attack in a news conference. Based on information from the news conference and additional news reports, it was likely that if the pipe bomb that 27 years old Akayed Ulla (from Bangladesh) had on him had achieved its objective, the storyline about a terror attack in New York would have been different, from New Yorkers being lucky, to something very serious.
Yes, people who travelled through the 42nd Street subway early on Monday morning were lucky that the Ullah's pipe bomb failed to achieve its objective. People outside the subway said they heard the sound of the pipe bomb as it went off, showing the strength of the explosion. While people in the subway said they heard the sound and that the smoke from the explosion assailed the atmosphere.
Ullah's aim to kill himself and kill others failed to materailize. Instead, he got seriously injured. And he is alive to help authorities in their investigations.
Aside from the confirmation by the Ports Authority and the New York Police Department, stories about the consternation among travelers following the explosion, remarks by the New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, little information is available at this time about Ullah's plans and his reason for the attack. The police are said to be searching his house as at the time of writing this report, while anti-terror detectives are also busy working to get credible information together.
Outside all these, it is plausible to say that Ullah intended to commit suicide bombing and kill other people. And that if he had succeeded, he would not just have killed himself, he would have killed others too. Observers are saying that a line in New York Times report about a possibility that Ullah may have told investigators he wanted to kill himself lacks required credibility, not as a news report, but that if it was true Ullah had said that, he was not saying the truth.
It is believed that if all that Ullah wanted to do was to kill himself, it was possible for him have done so without stripping a pipe bomb on himself and coming to the train station, and that the reason for his coming to the train station with a pipe bomb stripped on his body could not have been less than to kill innocent New Yorkers.
People believe strongly in the Police Commossioner James P. O'neill's statement that "The secure fastening may have indicated that Mr. Ullah entered the subway intending to carry out a suicide bombing."
The incident at a very busy time that workers were hurrying to work at 7:30 am, was a reminder of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's episode on a Delta flight, when a bomb he had in his underwear went off, but failed to achieve its damaging objective.
The New Yorks Port Authority had confirmed the attack in a news conference. Based on information from the news conference and additional news reports, it was likely that if the pipe bomb that 27 years old Akayed Ulla (from Bangladesh) had on him had achieved its objective, the storyline about a terror attack in New York would have been different, from New Yorkers being lucky, to something very serious.
Yes, people who travelled through the 42nd Street subway early on Monday morning were lucky that the Ullah's pipe bomb failed to achieve its objective. People outside the subway said they heard the sound of the pipe bomb as it went off, showing the strength of the explosion. While people in the subway said they heard the sound and that the smoke from the explosion assailed the atmosphere.
Ullah's aim to kill himself and kill others failed to materailize. Instead, he got seriously injured. And he is alive to help authorities in their investigations.
Aside from the confirmation by the Ports Authority and the New York Police Department, stories about the consternation among travelers following the explosion, remarks by the New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, little information is available at this time about Ullah's plans and his reason for the attack. The police are said to be searching his house as at the time of writing this report, while anti-terror detectives are also busy working to get credible information together.
Outside all these, it is plausible to say that Ullah intended to commit suicide bombing and kill other people. And that if he had succeeded, he would not just have killed himself, he would have killed others too. Observers are saying that a line in New York Times report about a possibility that Ullah may have told investigators he wanted to kill himself lacks required credibility, not as a news report, but that if it was true Ullah had said that, he was not saying the truth.
It is believed that if all that Ullah wanted to do was to kill himself, it was possible for him have done so without stripping a pipe bomb on himself and coming to the train station, and that the reason for his coming to the train station with a pipe bomb stripped on his body could not have been less than to kill innocent New Yorkers.
People believe strongly in the Police Commossioner James P. O'neill's statement that "The secure fastening may have indicated that Mr. Ullah entered the subway intending to carry out a suicide bombing."
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