ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said Thursday that a man charged in the US with illegally possessing firearms and carrying a notebook describing attack methods and a layout of a police station was Afghan, disputing US media reports linking him to Pakistan.
Luqmaan Khan, 25, was arrested on November 24 after police in New Castle County found him parked after hours in Canby Park West and later discovered multiple loaded Glock magazines, an armored ballistic plate and a handwritten notebook discussing attack methods and entry points to a University of Delaware police facility, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for Delaware this week.
Several US media outlets described Khan as “Pakistan-origin.”
“According to our investigations he is Afghan national. He stayed in Pakistan as a refugee for a few years with his family before leaving for the US,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi told Arab News.
The image released by the New Castle County Police Department on December 2, 2025, shows firearms possessed by Luqman Khan, who was arrested on November 24, 2025, following a traffic stop in Wilmington, Delaware. (New Castle County Police Department)
Afghan authorities have not yet commented publicly on Khan’s nationality.
The arrest comes less than two weeks after a separate case involving Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan asylee accused of shooting two US National Guard soldiers on November 26. One of the injured officers later died.
Following that incident, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services halted asylum decisions for migrants from 19 “high-risk” countries, including Afghanistan, a policy shift announced after the shooting and signed off by the Trump administration.
Pakistan has repeatedly argued that militancy linked to Afghan networks is often incorrectly attributed to Pakistan due to decades of refugee movement, and Islamabad last year began a controversial nationwide expulsion of undocumented Afghans.
Pakistan has long warned of rising militancy and radicalization linked to Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Kabul denies responsibility for attacks outside its territory.
