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Summary
Chilean authorities have extended the detention of a Pakistani man found with traces of explosives as he visited the US embassy to discuss a revoked visa. I am innocent and I do not know why this is happening. I think it is the fault of the United States, where I wanted to go for a month. That's why I went to the embassy, the man, who police identified as Mohammed Saif-ur-Rehman, told reporters. Rehman, 28, denied any terrorist ties. I have no idea what is happening here, but I imagine it has to do with what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. I don't know anything about bombs. I am a man who studies and works and I have nothing to do with that stuff, he said. Rehman made the remarks as he was transferred in a police van to a hospital for a medical checkup ordered by Judge Ely Rothfield. Rehman said he had not had contact with the Pakistani embassy, or with Chilean authorities, or the prosecutor in the case, Francisco Jacir. Under anti-terror laws the suspect can be detained until Saturday, court sources said. Experts found traces of a TNT explosive derivative on the young suspect's hands, cell phone, bag and documentation after he went through a security checkpoint on Monday, prompting embassy staff to notify police. Rehman insisted he did not know where the traces came from, and said that he was at the embassy only to renew his visa. But a senior State Department official said in Washington Tuesday that the embassy had called Rehman in after revoking his US visa. He would not say why the visa had been revoked. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Rehman had been called in to clarify the information that we have on this individual. And as he came into the embassy, our explosive detectors went off.The arrest came a week after Pakistani-born naturalized US citizen Faisal Shahzad was pulled off a plane to Dubai and arrested for allegedly leaving a sport utility vehicle rigged to explode in New York's crowded Times Square. I'm not aware there was any connection with the Times Square situation, said Crowley. The US ambassador to Chile, Paul Simons, said the affair was in the hands of Chilean lawyers, speaking in Spanish on local radio. Simons told Radio Cooperativa it did not appear that Rehman sought to attack the embassy because only residue was detected on him, but he underlined that the authorities needed to investigate.
