7th August, 2024 (TDI): Islamabad was in touch with the authorities in Washington and awaiting further details after reports emerged of a Pakistani national’s alleged involvement in the foiled assassination attempt on ex-US president Donald Trump.
The Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement that “We have seen the media reports. We are in touch with the authorities in US and await further details.”
The spokesperson said that they have also noted the comments by US officials that this is an ongoing probe.
She added that before giving the formal reaction, “We also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question.”
A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection to a foiled plot to kill a US politician or government officials, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the US to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US assassination of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ top commander Qassem Soleiman in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.
Merchant, who American prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him jailed on July 16, according to court records.
FBI investigators believe that former president Donald Trump, who approved the drone attack on Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot.
Court documents do not name the alleged targets of the assassination plot. Merchant informed a law enforcement informant that there would be “security all around” one target, according to the criminal complaint.
