NYC subway attack: Bangladeshi bomber arrested after blast; Chicago panics

Officials said that Ullah was from Bangladesh and had lived in the city for seven years.

Business Standard : A Bangladeshi-origin man was arrested on Monday after a “low-tech” suicide bomb he was was allegedly wearing went off injuring him and three others at the city’s transportation hub at the start of the rush hour.

Police Commissioner James O’Neil told reporters that 27-year-old Akayed Ullah had on an “improvised low-tech explosive device attached to his body,” which he “intentionally detonated”.

Officials said that Ullah was from Bangladesh and had lived in the city for seven years.

Ullah was taken to a hospital and has made statements to police, O’Neil said, but refused to disclose what he had said.

Asked if the suspect had connections to the Islamic State, the Commissioner refused comment saying the investigations were at a preliminary stage.

O’Neil said that that the joint task force of city and federal officials was carrying out a “thorough background investigation” of Ullah who lived in Brooklyn.

He said three other people sustained minor injuries.

John Miller, the head of police counter-terrorism, said that the device was a pipe bomb attached to Ullah’s body with velcro.

The bomb went off in a passageway connecting trains in the Times Square underground metro station adjoining the interstate bus terminal in Manhattan, disrupting the morning commute for thousands of people working in the city.

The Port Authority Bus Terminal was evacuated and shut down as scores buses headed to the city from suburbs and other states, but opened after police scoured it for suspicious objects. The Times Square subway station, the city’s busiest, was closed for a while.

Rahul Gandhi elected Congress president: Can he challenge PM Modi?

If he succeeds, he will fashion the Congress party into a viable challenger for Narendra Modi’s BJP; if he fails, India will be staring at a virtual one party democracy for the foreseeable future.

Business Standard : The oldest running joke in India finally has a denouement: will Rahul Gandhi ever accept the mantle of the Congress presidentship? For his dwindling crowd of supporters, Gandhi’s reluctance was an expression of a dynast uncomfortable with his privilege; for his detractors, it merely embodied his princely refusal to accept responsibility. But now the dust finally settles and Rahul Gandhi is the new official leader of India’s oldest political party and its significant heritage.

But even a cursory perusal of the political landscape would give Rahul Gandhi pause. Narendra Modi remains popular despite policy missteps like demonetsation and the rocky roll-out of goods and services tax (GST).

Though Congress appears to have recovered from its post 2014 stupor, it is currently in power in only two major states. Recent polls in Gujarat may give the Congress party some hope but the state will probably be a bridge too far.

Karnataka follows in 2018 which the Congress simply cannot afford to lose. The Congress is still playing electoral defense as India approaches the end of Modi’s first term. And that has to change quickly if it is to harbor any hopes of surviving the Modi era. There are three principal challenges facing the new Congress president as he prepares for the crucial 2019 elections.

First—-and this may appear flippant—-to be taken seriously. In the last few years, Rahul Gandhi has been reduced to an epithet; the most charitable reading suggests that he is a reluctant politician forced to carry forward the family legacy. Congress sympathizers would no doubt point out that Gandhi has lately discovered his voice—he has coined some catchy slogans, and most importantly, is consistently engaged in politics.