Sikh man who led US police to New York bombing suspect says he did 'what any American would have done'

'Any Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Muslim would have done the same thing,' Harinder Bains said

Harinder Bains, a bar owner in Linden, New Jersey, who led police to the New York bombing suspect

(CNN)

Harinder Bains is being hailed as a hero for leading police to the man who attempted to carry out devastating terror attacks in the US but says his actions amount to no more than “what every American would have done”.

The Indian American bar owner was watching television coverage of Saturday’s bombing in New York and attempted attacks in New Jersey when he noticed a man sleeping outside his business in Linden.

Mr Bains said he first dismissed the figure as a “drunk guy” wandering the streets before recognising him as Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspected plotter and suspect of a two-day nationwide manhunt.

He alerted police on Monday morning, allowing them to capture the 28-year-old after a shootout that left him in hospital.

“I did what I think every American would have done,” Mr Bains told CNN. “My neighbour would have done the same thing. Any Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Muslim. Anybody would have done the same thing.”

Mr Bains’ intervention allowed authorities to put Rahami in custody, preventing any further attacks and investigating his al-Qaeda-inspired plans for “jihad” against the US.

Commentators, politicians and social media users are praising him as a “hero”, particularly in light of the discrimination frequently reported by Sikh Americans following Islamist terror attacks.

A man wearing a turban was run over and beaten in California in December by attackers believed to have mistaken him for a Muslim following the San Bernardino shooting carried out by Isis supporters.

Some analysts have attributed verbal and physical assaults to a lack of awareness over the difference between traditional Sikh and Islamic dress, but others have viewed the attacks as a symptom of general anger and fear towards those perceived as “other”.

Mr Bains, who was born in India, insisted he was not a hero and said his Sikh faith taught him to take a stand against atrocities and persecution of any kind, adding: “We will be stronger like this if we do everything together.”

Rahami is accused of using a mobile phone to detonate a pipe bomb targeting a charity run by US Marines in Seaside Park on Saturday, as well as pressure cooker bomb that injured 31 people in New York 11 hours later.

Police found an unexploded bomb nearby in 27th Street, while a bomb disposal robot accidentally set off another package of improvised explosives dumped at Elizabeth railway station in New Jersey.

Prosecutors said Rahami bought bomb ingredients on eBay and recorded a video of himself gleefully igniting a blast in a back garden.

His journal contained praise for Nidal Hasan, who massacred 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas, “brother Osama bin Laden” and Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-Yemeni al-Qaeda recruiter killed in a US drone strike in 2011.

Federal charges filed on Tuesday detailed the extremist ramblings, which ended with the message: “Inshallah [God willing] the sounds of the bombs will be heard in your streets. Gunshots to your police. Death to your oppression.”

Rahami, who remains hospitalised with gunshot wounds, has been charged with terrorism, the use of a weapon of mass destruction, bombing, attempted murder of police officers, destruction of property and use of a destructive device.