Berlin attack: Wrongly detained Pakistani belongs to Balochistan

QUETTA: A Pakistani man who was briefly detained in Germany for his alleged links with Monday’s terrorist attack that killed a dozen people in Berlin hails from Balochistan.

A truck rammed into wooden huts on Monday evening near the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, counted among west Berlin’s most famous landmarks, and killed 12 people.



After the attack, the German police detained Naveed Baloch on suspicion. However, after 10-hour investigation they released him on Tuesday due to a lack of evidence. The police later accepted they arrested the ‘wrong man’.

According to Naveed Baloch’s relatives, he applied for asylum in Germany in February this year and was living in Kech when he left for the western country. “Baloch hails from Mand area in Kech district of the province,” his cousin told The Express Tribune.

News of the arrest of the 23-year-old Pakistani had led politicians in Germany and beyond to demand a crackdown on immigration, but Chancellor Angela Merkel had urged caution.



“There is much we still do not know with sufficient certainty but we must, as things stand now, assume it was a terrorist attack,” she told reporters.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2016.