LAHORE – US Consulate official Raymond Davis, who shot dead two Pakistani youths on Thursday, was handed over to the police on six-day remand on Friday. The police however has failed to arrest the other men so far – those in the SUV following Davis – accused of running over a motorcyclist while trying to rescue their colleague.
During the hearing in the court of Cantonment Judicial Magistrate Zafar Iqbal, Deputy Prosecutor Rana Bakhtiar Ahmad said the police had to question Davis on four points – why was he there at the time, why was he traveling in a private car, why did he not take security with him before leaving the consulate and why was he carrying a wireless set in his car and why was a separate SUV following his car.
Davis said in his statement that he shot at the two motorcycles in self-defence, but he had no intention of killing them. He said he was sorry the incident took place. Well-placed sources said police investigators contacted the US Consulate for details about the vehicles and the officials in them, but the consulate staff was not cooperating.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer Aslam Tareen said that Davis was in police custody on physical remand and a separate case had been registered against him for illegally carrying a handgun. Commenting on the guns recovered from the killed men, Tareen said the families of the deceased had not yet presented the licence for any of the weapons and police was checking the details of the weapons and mobile phones recovered from the deceased.
Lytton Road police said they had received two complaints against Faizan and Faheem for attempted robberies on Friday. They said the complainants were Doctor Mudassar and Sheharyar, who said Faizan and Faheem had snatched their mobile phones and cash at gun point from Mozang and LOS areas, respectively, between 1:15pm and 1:30pm on Friday. Both complainants claimed that they did not inform the police at the time of the incidents because they were panicked.
They said that they identified the “robbers” after seeing them on TV. However, Faizan and Faheem’s brothers rejected the allegations levelled by the complainants. Faizan’s brother said police was conspiring to help the American, alleging that his brother was carrying the pistol’s licence in his pocket, which police had taken into custody only to prove that the weapon was unlicenced.
Faheem’s brother said the only possibility to save the American was to declare his brother a robber and police was doing all to help the American. On the other hand the families of Faizan Haider and Faheem Shamshad, the two boys killed by Davis, claimed that the police was pressing them to withdraw the cases. The police has beefed up security in and around the US Consulate in order to prevent any untoward incident.
