Pakistani Caught With Explosives at US Embassy in Chile

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Police leave the residence of Mohammed Saif Ur Rehman Khan in downtown Santiago, late Monday, May 10, 2010.
(AP Photo/Felipe Fredes, La Tercera)
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A Pakistani man summoned to the US Embassy in Chile turned up Monday with traces of explosives on his documents and is now being detained by Chilean police. Muhammad Saif-Ur-Rehman Khan, 28, had entered Chile from the US on a 90-day tourist visa and was called to the embassy when it decided to revoke his visa to return to the US.

“During the routine visitor screening process, we uncovered evidence of explosives and as a result we contacted Chilean authorities and they escorted him off the premises,” the US Ambassador to Chile told Bloomberg. The State Department said it isn't aware of any link between Khan and attempted New York City bomber Faisal Shahzad; American and Chilean authorities are each currently investigating the matter.


The suspect had been in Chile since January and was doing an internship in tourism at a Chilean hotel, said CNN Chile, CNN's partner network in the nation.

Chilean authorities searched the man's apartment in a student housing district in central Santiago, CNN Chile reported. Video showed officials in white hazmat suits carrying items out of an apartment.

A neighbor said in a televised interview that the suspect was a religious man who went to a local mosque every day. Asked whether friends visited him, the unnamed neighbor said, "No. Nobody."

The incident occurred a week after Faisal Shahzad son of Retd vice marshal of Pak Air Force - a Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen - was arrested in connection with a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square.