Suspected US Blackwater contractor jailed in Pakistan

Feb 26, 2011, 11:30 GMT

Islamabad - A Pakistani court on Saturday sent a US national suspected of being a security contractor but arrested for visa violations in Pakistan on a two-week judicial remand to prison.

Aaron Mark DeHaven was seized by Pakistani law enforcement agencies on Thursday in Peshawar, the capital of Islamist militancy- plagued north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, on charges that he had stayed in the country for months after his visa was expired.

DeHaven told the local judge Qudrat Ullah that he was running a private business in Peshawar and had no link with any project run by the US government.

However, a Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that DeHaven was the regional head of the private US security contractor Backwaters/Xe.

The Pakistani and US authorities have officially denied the presence of controversial Blackwaters in Pakistan but the intelligence official insisted that the Backwaters/Xe works under the name of 'Catalyst Services' and DeHaven was heading that in Peshawar.

'Everyone here among our intelligence circles knows for whom this man is working for and there is no doubt about it,' claimed the official.

The United States has hired various security firms to protect its employees working for a number of development projects in Pakistan.

A statement from US embassy in Islamabad said that it was aware of the arrest of an American national and trying to arrange consular access through Pakistani government.

The arrest of DeHaven came at a time when public pressure is building on the Pakistani government to bring another US national, Raymond Davis, to justice. Davis is in custody after he killed two Pakistanis on January 27 in the eastern city of Lahore.

Davis claimed he acted in self-defence during an armed robbery attempt but Pakistani official alleged that he killed the two men in 'cold-blood.'

Washington has said Davis was an embassy employee, and should be immediately released on the grounds of diplomatic immunity, a claim challenged by some Pakistani officials.

The New York Times and Washington Post, citing US officials, reported last week that Davis was actually a security contractor for the CIA conducting surveillance of militant groups.

Davis is a retired special forces soldier who has worked for private security firms, including Blackwater Worldwide, which is now known as Xe Services, the newspapers reported.

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