Peshawar: As the US-Pak diplomatic standoff over the arrest of an American for double murder persists, another US national has been held in Pakistan for his alleged illegal stay in the country following expiry of his visa.
Aaron Mark DeHaven was arrested by security agencies in Peshawar on Saturday and booked under the Foreigners Act on charges of illegally residing in Pakistan after his visa expired in October last year.
A Pakistani court on Saturday remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days.
DeHaven had come to Pakistan on a business visa and made some investments in the country, officials said.
He had no connection with any NGO and was running his own business, they said, adding he did not possess valid travel documents.
The American was detained in the posh University Town area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
TV news channels claimed he worked as a security guard for foreigners in Peshawar. They also reported that Dehaven was married to a Pakistani woman.
The development comes at a time when US-Pakistan relations have plunged to a new low over the arrest of an alleged CIA contractor, Raymond Davis, after he shot and killed two armed men in Lahore last month.
In Washington, the State Department said the US is arranging through Pakistan government consular access to DeHaven.
"We've seen reports that Aaron Mark Dehaven has been detained by police in Peshawar, and we are arranging consular access through the Government of Pakistan," State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters.
Crowley said he had no other information about Dehaven.
About Davis, the spokesman noted that the American, who was arrested on January 27, presented before a Pakistani court on Friday his papers related to diplomatic immunity.
"...he presented the court with a copy of a diplomatic note that affirms his full immunity from criminal prosecution. The court received that document and indicated that it would take the matter under consideration, and I believe there's another hearing scheduled for March 3," Crowley said.