KARACHI/BEIJING (Reuters) Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Thursday he thought it unlikely that a Pakistani-American arrested over a failed plot to bomb New Yorks Times Square had acted alone. Investigations in Pakistan have uncovered possible links between Faisal Shahzad, 30, the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri group, officials and news reports said. According to the available information he says it was his individual act, Malik told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Beijing. I would not tend to believe that. Pakistani security officials told Reuters that Shahzad was close to Jaish-e-Mohammad which also has ties to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The people who have been picked up do have links to Jaish and have also been in touch with Shahzad during his visits here, a security official in Karachi told Reuters. The official was referring to Mohammad Rehan, a friend of Shahzad, who was detained on Tuesday after leaving the Batha Mosque in Karachi. Other associates, including Shahzads father-in-law, have also been detained in Karachi, according to CNN. The mosque is said to have links to Jaish and neighbours tell of visits by its leaders. It is a known fact that the mosque (in Karachi) has been a recruiting ground for Jaish and many people have been sent to the tribal areas (home to the TTP) for training, a second security official told Reuters. The official said several men recruited through the mosque had fought against the military during recent offensives against the TTP. It may not be a surprise if the people associated with the mosque, or those who come here for recruitment, are linked with the TTP, he said. The US official agreed. TTP is entirely plausible but were not ruling out other groups, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. If confirmed that the Taliban in Pakistan sponsored the attempted bombing in New York, as it claimed over the weekend, it would be the groups first attack on US soil. The United States had asked Pakistan for help in investigating the failed bomb plot, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, and is preparing a detailed request for urgent and specific assistance to be presented by the end of the week. Pakistan was ready to give them every help, full support to bring the culprits to justice, Malik said.