Pakistani man charged with smuggling of weapons from US

A Pakistani man has been charged with trying to smuggle assault weapons to "his country", officials said.

Agha Muhammad Khan Durrani, 27, was produced before a federal judge, who ordered his detention here on Wednesday.

Assistant federal prosecutor Aaron Mango said that Durrani was stopped by the Canadian border agents in July when he was trying to bring assault rifle accessories into Canada and he was handed over to US border officials at the Niagara Falls.

First he told the customs officials that he was going with his father to return the seven types of assault rifle parts he had to shop, then changed his story and said that he wanted to take them back to Pakistan for hunting and for defending his family's property, prosecutors said.

But a check of his mobile phone found pictures of various assault rifles and parts and a message about a $10,800 shipment of weapons accessories shipped to Thailand and ready to be picked up there, prosecutors said.

Durrani admitted that he had a business in Pakistan that sells guns, gun parts, ammo, and accessories

His father was not identified.

--IANS

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