Bangladeshi is a legal resident of U.S.
THE BANGLADESHI man accused of trying to blow himself up in a subway passage near the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Monday is a former black-car driver who carried out the bungled bombing in the name of ISIS, sources said.
As NYPD investigators and FBI agents swarmed several addresses in Brooklyn linked to Akayed Ullah, 27, details of his background emerged.
Ullah has legally lived in the U.S. since 2011, arriving thanks to a visa for people with relatives who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, the Department of Homeland Security said. For three years, he held a license to be a livery car driver, which had expired.
It was unclear if he was currently employed. Gov. Cuomo described him as “disgruntled.” A neighbor of Ullah’s family home in Flatlands described him as “a hermit.”
Ullah had begun reading ISIS propaganda online, as well as Al Qaeda’s digital magazine, Inspire, a source said.
“He says he did it in the name of ISIS. He says he acted alone . . . . He found the instructions for the bomb online,” the source added. The source said Ullah was “pretty forthcoming” and talked about the Koran.
He complained to investigators about how Muslims were treated under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, a source said.
CNN separately reported that Ullah was motivated by recent Israeli actions in Gaza.
Ullah caught the F train at the 18th Ave./McDonald Ave. station in Brooklyn about 6:25 a.m. and later transferred to the A train at Jay. St./MetroTech, which he took to the 42nd-St. Port Authority subway station.
There, he detonated a crude bomb that was attached to his body, NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said. The blast mainly injured the suspect. Three commuters suffered minor injuries.
Ullah was “not really part of a sophisticated network,” Cuomo said, comparing the suspect with Sayfullo Saipov, who is accused of driving a rented pickup truck along the Hudson River bike path on Halloween, killing eight people. “They’re not people who come from overseas. They live here, they’re disgruntled, they go to the internet,” Cuomo said on CNN. “They find out how to download a device that can hurt and maim. And they implement it themselves on a low-tech basis. It’s very troubling.”
He said both men fit into a trend of “lone wolf” terrorists inspired through the internet and acting on their own.
Ullah hailed from the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong and had no criminal record there, according to the country’s police chief. Ullah last visited Bangladesh on Sept. 8.
He had a livery driver’s license between March 2012 and March 2015, which he allowed to expire, a Taxi & Limousine Commission spokesman said. A source said he was in two crashes and received two summonses during the period. Ullah did not have a license allowing him to drive a yellow cab.
Meanwhile, police were investigating an apartment building on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn’s Kensington neighborhood. Cops in the area appeared to be retracing Ullah’s steps from the building to the subway.
Neighbors of Ullah’s family on E. 48th St. in Flatlands were stunned they shared the block with an accused terrorist.
Three people — identified by neighbors as Ullah’s mother, father and brother — were being questioned by police. George Sciarrone, 48, said Ullah was “not the type of guy who would say hello,” in contrast with Ullah’s brother. “One brother was a social butterfly, the other was a hermit — the bomber. He never spoke to me. He never spoke to anyone,” said Sciarrone,