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Updated 22 Dec, 2016 08:07am

My son is innocent, says father of Pakistani asylum seeker suspected of Berlin attack

The father of Naveed Baloch, a Pakistani asylum seeker briefly held on suspicion of driving a lorry into a Berlin Christmas market, says he refuses to believe his son could have been involved in what authorities have been calling a 'terrorist attack'.

Hassan Baloch, Naveed Baloch’s father, said his son had been a daily wage worker employed in the fishing industry in Gwadar.

“Out of frustration and fed up with unemployment, my son went to Germany 17 months ago,” said Baloch.

Hassan added that he has yet to talk to his son after his release by German authorities.

The family is a resident of Labnan in Mand tehsil of district Kech in Balochistan.

Naveed Baloch had been released for lack of evidence on Tuesday after being arrested earlier on suspicion of ploughing a lorry into a Berlin Christmas market.

“The accused, detained over the attack on the Berlin Christmas market on December 19, 2016, was let go on this evening on the orders of the federal prosecutor,” said the German prosecutor's office in a statement.

Twelve people were killed and almost 50 wounded Monday when a truck tore through a crowd in a Christmas market in Berlin, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims in scenes reminiscent of July's deadly attack in the French Riviera city of Nice.

The attack came days before Christmas festivities in Germany's capital city, raising the possibility of a backlash against Germany's relatively more accommodating immigration policy compared to other major European powers.

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