Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Thursday that a man arrested by US police last week in Delaware after he was allegedly found in possession of a gun, ammunition and written plans for an attack was not of Pakistani origin and was Afghan.
“He is not [a] Pakistani national or [of] Origin Pakistan. He is Afghan and spent some years as a refugee. [in Pakistan] and then he went to the United States, where he spent most of his life,” Andrabi said in a statement shared with reporters.
His clarification came after several media reports, including those from Indian and American media outlets, identified the suspect as a man of Pakistani origin.
TO USA today The report says that the arrested man, Luqman Khan, was a Pakistani-born American citizen, who was arrested on November 24.
In the same way, the reports of the New York Post and india Hindustan Times and Indian Timesamong others, they also identified him as a Pakistani immigrant.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the US Department of Justice on December 1 detailing the charges against Khan identified him as a resident of the Delaware city of Wilmington and made no mention of his nationality.
According to a report by The Associated Press today, which also does not identify Khan as a man of Pakistani origin, the suspect is a student at the University of Delaware.
He was arrested Nov. 24 “after police found a gun, ammunition and written plans for an attack in his vehicle that included references to ‘martyrdom’ and named a campus police officer as a target,” authorities said, according to the report.
He added that, according to a complaint filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the case, Khan was also found in possession of a notebook “containing writings on ‘urban warfare.'”
Further citing the complaint, the report said, “A subsequent search of his home found a rifle with a telescopic sight, a bulletproof vest, and a pistol modified with an illegal machine gun conversion device known as a ‘switch.'”
According to the Department of Justice press release, Khan was charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun on November 26.
