(NECN: Brad Puffer, Boston, Mass.) - A government attorney says Aftab Khan, a Pakistani man arrested in Massachusetts during the investigation into the failed Times Square bomb plot, had the primary suspect's phone number.
Richard Neville, deputy chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, told a judge in Boston that Aftab Khan had in
his belongings an envelope with the Faisal Shahzad's first name on it.
He says the envelope also had a phone number that investigators have concluded is Shahzad's.
Neville says Khan also had a cell phone that contained in its memory Shahzad's phone number and first name.
Neville says the items were found in Khan's apartment in Watertown, Mass.
Khan and a cab driver, Pir Khan, lived together in Watertown and were arrested last week. Friends have said the two are distantly related. A third man, Mohammad Shafiq Rahman, was arrested in Maine.
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All three men are being held on immigration charges and have not been charged criminally.
Defense attorney Saher Macarius says that Khan had never heard of Shahzad before his arrest.
Macarius said Aftab Khan worked as a civilian employee on a U.S.
Army base in Kuwait for several years before coming to the United
States in August. He said Khan worked for a company that brought
food and supplies to the base.
Macarius said Khan met an American soldier on the base who
agreed to marry him. He said Khan was issued a visa to travel to
Colorado for their wedding, but when he arrived, the woman broke
off their engagement. Khan married a teacher in Cambridge in
November, Macarius said. Authorities have said he was arrested
because of an expired visa.
*Material from The Associated Press used in this report*
