Police free US man detained at Pakistani airport

Pakistani men cross a bridge over a canal filled with garbage in the old town of Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Pakistani men cross a bridge over a canal filled with garbage in the old town of Peshawar, Pakistan, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani police briefly detained an American, later identified as a U.S. Embassy employee, after bullets were found in his luggage at an airport in the country's northwest on Tuesday.

The man was released after a couple of hours and handed over to American officials in the city of Peshawar once his identity was clear, said police officer Dost Mohammad Khan.

Khan said 13 bullets were found in the man's luggage ahead of a flight to Islamabad. It was not clear why the bullets were there.

A U.S. official said the man was an embassy employee and had diplomatic immunity. He said the U.S. Embassy was in contact with the Pakistani authorities "about the details of the case."

The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized by Washington to be named in the media.

There is a large U.S. consulate in Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border.

The presence of American diplomats inside Pakistan emerged as a sensitive issue after a CIA contractor killed two Pakistani men in the eastern city of Lahore a year ago. U.S. officials insisted the shooter had diplomatic immunity, but Pakistan held him in jail for around two months, causing severe strain in U.S-Pakistan ties.

The unilateral American-raid that killed Osama bin Laden in an army town in May last year also led to a fresh wave of suspicion against Western diplomats by the Pakistani security establishment, which was apparently stung by the realization that the CIA agents were operating in the country without its knowledge.

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Associated Press writer Chris Brummitt in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-02-14-AS-Pakistan/id-0b7c126af4f44fc4997d2395e8414e79

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