Sikh hailed as hero for helping arrest NY blast suspect

An Indian-American bar owner in Linden, New Jersey, tipped off police after he spotted bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami sleeping in the doorway of his store early Monday morning that finally led to his arrest.

Harinder Bains, the owner of Merdie’s Tavern in Linden, New Jersey, told media in USA that  he saw Rahami sleeping outside his bar and called the authorities, after recognising him as the wanted man for this weekend’s bombings in New York and New Jersey. The FBI had earlier posted the suspect’s pictures for public alert.

But Harinder Bains doesn’t see himself as a hero. “I am just a regular citizen doing what every citizen should do,” Bains is reported to have said.  “I just told them the guy looks a little suspicious and doesn’t look good to me,” he said.

Rahami was captured after a shootout that left him and two law enforcement officers injured in Linden, a New Jersey city not very far from Elizabeth, another city in the state where he lived with his family.

The suspect, an Afghan-descent naturalised American citizen, had worked at his family owned restaurant — First American Fried Chicken — in Elizabeth and was known to be a friendly man who sometimes gave away free food to regular customers.He had a liking for western clothes and fast cars — souped up Honda Civics. But he changed dramatically after his return from a brief stay in Afghanistan four years ago.

He became religious and took to wearing traditional clothes. Rahami had spent a few weeks in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, in 2011. During that time he also visited Quetta in Pakistan and married a Pakistani woman.

He returned to Pakistan in 2013 and stayed there a year, according to law enforcement officials cited by CNN. He tried to bring his wife to the US, but officials were not certain if he succeeded

CNN said Rahami had called the office of New Jersey Congressman Albio Sires, a Democrat turned Republican, from Islamabad in 2014 saying he was concerned about his wife’s passport and visa.