By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday pushed back against media reports identifying a man arrested in Delaware last week with a cache of weapons and plans for an attack as being of Pakistani origin, insisting instead that he was Afghan and had spent only a few years in Pakistan as a refugee before moving to the United States.
“He is not [a] Pakistani national or [of] Pakistan origin. He is an Afghan, spent a few years as a refugee [in Pakistan] and then went to the US, where he spent most of his life,” Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Office, said in a statement.
The clarification came amid a flurry of reports from American and Indian news outlets that described the suspect, Luqman Khan, as a Pakistani immigrant or Pakistan-born United States citizen. A USA Today report said Khan was arrested on Nov. 24 and identified him as a Pakistan-born US citizen. Similarly, the New York Post, along with India’s Hindustan Times and Times of India, among others, referred to him as a Pakistani immigrant.
An earlier report by The Associated Press, which did not specify Khan’s origin as Pakistani, described him as a student at the University of Delaware. Details of the arrest emerged in a Dec. 1 press release from the United States Department of Justice, which identified Khan as a resident of Wilmington, Del., without mentioning his nationality.
According to the release, Khan was pulled over during a traffic stop on Nov. 24 and arrested after refusing to comply with officers. “During their investigation, officers discovered in Khan’s vehicle a .357 caliber Glock handgun loaded with 27 rounds,” the release said. It added that officials also found a handwritten notebook in which Khan discussed “additional weapons and firearms, how they could be used in an attack, and how law enforcement detection could be avoided once an attack was carried out.” “The notebook referenced a member of the University of Delaware’s Police Department by name, and included a layout of a building with entry and exit points under which the words ‘UD Police Station’ were printed,” the department said.
A subsequent search of Khan’s residence turned up additional items, including “a Glock 19 9mm handgun equipped with an illegal machinegun conversion device, commonly called a ‘switch,’” according to the release.“
Law enforcement also recovered a .556 rifle with a scope and a red dot sight, eleven more extended magazines, hollow point rounds of ammunition, and a two-plate tactical vest equipped with a single ballistic plate,” it said.
Khan was charged on Nov. 26 with illegally possessing a machine gun, the Justice Department said. “If convicted of the charge, Khan faces a maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment. If Khan is ultimately convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors,” the release said. The case has drawn attention amid heightened scrutiny of immigration and security issues in the United States, though officials have not publicly linked Khan to any broader threats or groups.
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