A Pakistani judge ruled on Friday that a young American man of Pakistani descent could be detained for another two days after he was arrested trying to enter a militant-plagued region on the Afghan border.
The man, identified by police as Judi Kenan, was detained on Monday while trying to enter the Mohmand ethnic Pashtun tribal region. Kenan was brought before the judge, Nasrullah Khan, amid tight security in a court near the northwestern town of Charsadda. "The judge remanded him into police custody for two days," a Charsadda police official said.
Kenan, clad in a shalwar kameez, a traditional baggy shirt and trousers, did not speak to the judge, a reporter said. "His face was covered with a cloth," said reporter Ahmed Ali.
Mohmand is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions that have long been off limits to foreigners without special permission and which in recent years have become plagued by Islamist militant violence.
Police said Kenan had told them he wanted to visit a friend in Mohmand. He had a valid visa for Pakistan but he did not have permission to enter the region and nor did he have his friend's address, police said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed this week that a U.S. citizen had been detained by Pakistani officials and that U.S. diplomats had been given access to him. |