WASHINGTON: Raymond Davis — United States citizen and ex-Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who sparked a diplomatic storm in Pakistan in 2011 after killing two young men in Lahore — has written a book about his experience.
In his memoir—‘The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis’—Davis talks in detail about his experience in Pakistan. According to its description, the book is an up-close and personal look at the 2011 incident in Lahore that led to his [Davis’s] imprisonment and the events that took place as diplomats on both sides of the bargaining table scrambled to get him out.
On January 27, 2011, Lahore’s Lytton Road police had registered a case against Davis on the charge of killing two citizens, Faizan and Faheem, at downtown Qurtaba Chowk.
Two traffic wardens had chased down the suspect, who pleaded he had killed the bike-riders in ‘self-defence’ after they tried to rob him. The killings had disturbed Pakistan and strained ties between Islamabad and Washington.
The US pressed for diplomatic immunity for Davis lead to some clear and many ambiguous responses from officials in Pakistan. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was the foreign minister at that time, had stated that the arrested American didn’t enjoy diplomatic immunity.
The US plea was weakened when it came out that the man arrested was actually one of the CIA’s operatives in Pakistan. The pardon granted to him in exchange for blood money also meant an implicit admission on the part of the US that Davis couldn’t qualify for immunity.
The Lahore High Court had left the decision to the trial court. The tension-filled saga — spread over a month and a half — was brought to an abrupt conclusion on March 16, 2011, when Davis was released and quickly flown out of Pakistan after the heirs of the youth killed told the court they had accepted monetary compensation to settle the case.
US officials never released details about Davis’ precise job in Pakistan, saying only he was a “member of the administrative and technical staff” of the Islamabad embassy and travelled on a diplomatic passport.
Had the same crime been committed by a member of Pakistani diplomatic mission in US, he would have still been rotting in an American prison. Shame on the families for accepting blood money shame on Pakistani government letting this cold blooded murderer escape justice!!!!
Families were threatened to accept blood money. You should investigate before blaming someone like this.
ISI released him
Comments are closed.