FO says in touch with US over Pakistani national charged in assassination plot

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad was in touch with the United States after reports emerged of a Pakistani national’s alleged involvement in political assassinations in the US, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.

In a statement, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, “We have seen the media reports. We are in touch with the United States and await further details.”

“We have also noted the statements by US officials that this is an ongoing investigation,” FO spokesperson responded to the queries.

“Before giving our formal reaction, we also need to be sure of the antecedents of the individual in question,” she added.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department said a Pakistani national alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged with a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.

Asif Merchant, 46, traveled to New York in June to meet with men he thought he was recruited to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said.

He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan, AP reported.

FBI investigators believe that former president Donald Trump, who approved the drone strike on Soleimani, and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, CNN reported, citing a US official.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged in July that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally in which Trump was injured by a shooter’s bullet.

That July 13 shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and Merchant’s arrest has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt, a law enforcement official said, AP reported.