Four linked to Times Square truck bomb plot acquitted in Pakistan

Four men accused of taking part in a botched plot to detonate a truck bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010 have been acquitted by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court.

The men — Humbal Akhtar, Muhammad Shouaib Mughal, Shahid Hussain and Faisal Abbasi — wee charged as accomplices to Pakistani-American man Faisal Shahzad, according to CNN.

Shahzad, 30, pleaded guilty to attempting to detonate the "bomb" — a sport utility vehicle filled with propane tanks and fertilizer — which produced smoke but no blast.

He was sentenced to life in prison in the US.

According to the New York Post, Shahzad — a financial analyst living in Connecticut when he became radicalized — also admitted to receiving training in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border from the Taliban.

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The Post wrote that the men acquitted Saturday of the May 1 attack "come from the same stock as Shahzad — wealthy, urban, educated and with careers in computers, telecommunications and graphic design."

They had had been accused of helping to finance the attack and of arranging meetings between Shahzad and top Taliban leaders, the News Tribune reported.

A lawyer for the men reportedly said the case against the men was weak and lashed out over the men's two-year incarceration while awaiting trial.

"These men are law abiding citizens. They would never imagine doing what they were accused of," he said, CNN reported.