ISLAMABAD: A lawyer representing four Pakistani men accused of involvement in the 2010 Times Square bomb plot says they have been acquitted.
Malik Imran Safdar said yesterday that the prosecution failed to prove its case against his clients Muhammad Shoaib Mughal, Muhammad Shahid Husain, Humbal Akhtar and Faisal Abbasi.
The men were arrested in Pakistan following the New York City incident.
Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty in a US court to trying to blow up a bomb in his SUV. It produced smoke but no explosion.
Two other men arrested Pakistan in the wake of the incident were previously released.
Meanwhile, a US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt killed at least three militants yesterday, security officials said, the latest in a recent spate of attacks.
The strike — the sixth in 11 days — took place in Khawashi Khel village, five kilometers (three miles) west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan, a Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity.
 FROM: AGENCIES
“The US drone fired two missiles which completely destroyed the vehicle. At least three militants have been killed,” the security official said.
Another official said the attack took place as militants were trying to move from one area to another near the border.
Washington considers Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main hub of Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.
Pakistani-US relations went into free fall last year.
Court acquits 4 of helping NYC bomber
