Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that a man arrested by the US police last week in Delaware after he was allegedly found in possession of a handgun, ammunition and written plans for an attack was not of Pakistani origin and was an Afghan.
“He is not [a] Pakistani national or [of] Pakistan origin. He is an Afghan, spent a few years as a refugee and then went to the US, where he spent most of his life,” Andrabi said in a statement shared with journalists.
His clarification came after several media reports, including those from Indian and American news outlets, identified the suspect as a man of Pakistani origin.
A USA Today report said the arrested man, Luqman Khan, was a Pakistan-born US citizen, who was arrested on November 24.
Similarly, reports by the New York Post and India’s Hindustan Times and Times of India, among others, also identified him as a Pakistani immigrant.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the US Department of Justice on Dec 1 detailing charges against Khan identified him as a resident of Delaware’s Wilmington city and did not make any mention of his nationality.
According to a report by The Associated Press, which also does not identify Khan as a man of Pakistani origin, the suspect is a student of the University of Delaware.
He was arrested on November 24 “after police found a handgun, ammunition and written plans for an attack in his vehicle that included references to ‘martyrdom’’ and named a campus police officer as a target,” the report quoted authorities as saying.
It 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 about ‘urban warfare’”.
Further citing the complaint, the report said: “A later search of his home turned up a scoped rifle, body armour and a handgun modified with an illegal machine gun conversion device known as a ‘switch’”.
According to the Department of Justice press release, Khan was charged with illegally possessing a machine gun on November 26.
