Chilean police detain Pakistani in U.S. Embassy

Published 12:57 pm Tuesday, May 11, 2010

SANTIAGO, Chile — Traces of explosives were found on a Pakistani man who was summoned to the U.S. Embassy because his U.S. visa had been revoked, State Department officials in Washington said today.

Mohammed Saif-ur-Rehman Khan, 28, was detained after the Embassy’s detectors were set off by traces of bomb-making substances, said Mario Schilling, a Chilean prosecutor’s spokesman. Schilling did not elaborate on what kind of explosives were involved or provide more details about the case. Khan was scheduled to appear before a judge later today.

In Washington, a senior State Department official said U.S. authorities had received information about Khan that led them to revoke his visa, and he was therefore asked to go to the embassy in Santiago so that diplomats there could inform him of the revocation, as required by law. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

U.S. Ambassador to Chile Paul Simon told The Associated Press that the Embassy called Chile’s government and police after “security procedures detected some traces of explosives during the interview.” He said it didn’t appear that the Embassy itself was targeted.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley in Washington said U.S. and Chilean officials would conduct a joint investigation. Investigators in white hazardous-materials suits searched Khan’s apartment in a student residence in downtown Santiago.

Chile wants Khan’s detention to be extended for three days so that police can fully gather any evidence, Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said. “We will be relentless in the fight against any form of crime, especially terrorism,” he told reporters today while touring southern Chile.

Schilling wouldn’t comment on a report in the El Mercurio newspaper that the explosive substances were found in a bag and on documents and a cellular telephone Khan was carrying.

The paper also reported that Khan was in Chile legally to study tourism, and had a job at a hotel.

His detention comes only days after Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, allegedly tried to set off a bomb-laden SUV in New York’s Times Square after receiving training from the Taliban in Pakistan.