Pakistanis condemn CIA agent release

Pakistanis shout slogans as they march toward the US embassy during a protest against the release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis in Islamabad on Wednesday March 16.

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170317.html

Pakistani people have staged street protests to voice their outrage at the release of a CIA contractor charged with killing two men in Lahore.

Anti-US demonstrations broke out on Wednesday in the capital, Islamabad, and similar protests were held in the major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar.

In Lahore, baton-wielding police forces tried to disperse the demonstrators who had gathered in front of the US consulate, injuring several protesters.

Pakistani officials say Davis was released after he paid the blood money for the victims. However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denied any payments for securing the release.

Family members of the slain men appeared in the court and confirmed that they had pardoned Davis. But the move was clouded with reports that they were pressured by police into signing the agreement.

Davis killed two locals in the eastern city of Lahore in January in a move repeatedly claimed by Washington to be an act of “self-defense.”

The US insisted that as a consulate official, Davis enjoyed diplomatic immunity, but he eventually turned out to be working for CIA.

Pakistan has since been under mounting pressure to release Davis. US lawmakers had threatened to cut millions of dollars in military and other aid to Islamabad.

The case has soured relations between Islamabad and Washington since January and intensified anti-US sentiments in Pakistan.

Pakistanis outraged at Davis acquittal

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/170314.html

Outrage on the streets of Islamabad! Within hours of the release of the American CIA agent Raymond Davis, angry protests erupted across Pakistan. Many were injured after protestors attempted to remove road barricades in a failed attempt to attack US Consulate General Office in the eastern city of Lahore.

The release of Raymond Davis has caused an outcry in Pakistan. The CIA agent who was charged with killing two men in the eastern city of Lahore in January.

There have been reports that the victims' families were kidnapped and coerced into pardoning the CIA contracor.

An official statement by the US embassy in Islamabad said that Raymond Davis was acquitted of murder after being pardoned by the victims' families in exchange for compensation; a claim backed by the government. But it is hard to find people on the street who will buy into that version of the story.

Many Pakistanis are of the opinion that the government and the opposition mainstream somehow knew what pattern the events around the case would follow.

The Taliban may now have found some reasons to politically cash-in on public resentment. Militants have vowed to target officials and political leaders involved in the alleged backroom deal to release the CIA agent who is believed to be a key CIA operative to carry out espionage operations in Pakistan.

CIA man free after 'blood money' payment

Court frees Raymond Davis, contractor accused of murdering two men, after he agreed to pay money to their families.

The case prompted widespread protests across Pakistan, with demonstrators calling for Davis to be hanged [REUTERS]

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/03/2011316121616279778.html

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor accused of murdering two men in Lahore, Pakistan, has been released after the families to the two men he killed were given "blood money" and the case was dropped, Pakistani officials said.

While Davis, who had earlier admitted to the killings but said he was acting in "self-defence", was indicted for the murders earlier on Wednesday, Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab law minister, said he was immediately pardoned by the families of the victims in exchange for compensation or "blood money".

The practice of pardoning those accused of murder under such an arrangement is permitted under Pakistani law.

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Peshawar, said the families' lawyer had claimed they were forced to sign the agreement over the blood money, but none of the family members have spoken out so far.

"There is likely to be a public reaction, despite the fact that the court had moved according to the law of the land," he said.

The amount of money agreed to has not been made clear.

Davis had been arrested on January 27, after having killed the two men on a street in Lahore. He said that the two men were attempting to rob him, and that he acted in self-defence.

Chaudhry Mushtaq, superintendent at Kot Lakhpat jail, said Davis left the jail with US consulate officials after the hearing.

US officials were not immediately available for comment.

Patty Culhane, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Washington, said there had been a lot of criticism about how the Obama administration had handled the case since the beginning.

The United States has consistently insisted that Davis had diplomatic immunity and had demanded that the Pakistani authorities release him immediately. The case has caused a diplomatic row between the countries, with the Pakistani government, under pressure from the public not to allow Davis immunity, leaving the matter up to the courts.

Pakistani officials had earlier suggested that the payment of "blood money" was the best solution. Lawyers for the victims however suggested that they were forced to sign the deal.

"We were put in detention for four hours and not allowed to meet our clients who were called by authorities to the court," Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the family of one of victims told Reuters.

Sanaullah said Davis was formally indicted on murder charges before members of the two victims' families were taken into the court, where they signed papers formally forgiving him in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money.

Judges then acquitted him on all charges, he said.

Davis case fueling anger across Pakistan

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167561.html

Anti-US protests are raging across Pakistan following the murder of two Pakistanis by a US national in late January.

People from all walks of life have staged protests almost every day since then to put pressure on the government to punish Raymon Davis who killed two Pakistani citizens on a busy road in the eastern city of Lahore.

His case has also sparked a bitter diplomatic row between Washington and Islamabad. The US claims he is an embassy official; while other sources say he is a CIA contractor.

Legal experts believe Davis may be given either life sentence or death punishment amid rising anti-US sentiments never seen before in Pakistan. They say this was the specific reason that former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lost his job and is now attracting tens of thousands of people rallying around anti-US sentiments in Pakistan.

Many here are furious that the US has urged Pakistan to release Raymond Davis. The official records reportedly dispatched by the US embassy to Pakistan's Foreign Ministry a day before the incident, shows that Davis was not even registered with the government as a non-diplomatic member of the embassy .

Despite the rising public anger, the US remains engaged in what appears to be an offensive diplomacy putting tremendous pressure on Islamabad to secure the release of Davis without prosecution.

Washington has threatened to oust the Pakistani ambassador and close down US consulates in Pakistan if Islamabad did not immediately free him

With 47 eyewitness accounts, Davis is being prosecuted in the court after police concluded that he killed the two citizens not in self-defense.

Pakistani court puts CIA agent on trial

Thousands of Pakistanis have demanded the execution of a CIA contractor

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/167033.html

A court in Pakistan has adjourned the trial of a CIA contractor charged with killing two Pakistani men, dismissing Washington demands for his release.

The next hearing has been scheduled for March 3.

The US initially claimed that Raymond Davis -- a former US Special Forces officer -- was a diplomat. Washington insisted that Islamabad must repatriate Davis as he has diplomatic immunity.

However, it was later revealed that Davis is a CIA contractor.

If convicted, Davis could face execution for double homicide. Davis claims he acted in self-defense when he shot the men in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

The killings have inflamed anti-US sentiments in Pakistan, where people are already angry with Washington over its non-UN-sanctioned airstrikes.

The unauthorized strikes, which were initiated by former US President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama, have drastically increased in recent months.

Washington claims the airstrikes target militants. However, according to statistics, the attacks have left hundreds of civilians dead in Pakistan since 2008.

'CIA agent Davis linked to Taliban'

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166139.html

Documents show Raymond Davis, an American who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January, had links with CIA's espionage and sabotage plans in the Asian country.

“The documents, photographs and the evidence that has come out from Davis' sofa almost confirms his links with Taliban terrorism…the attacks on ISI and the security establishment as well as the drone attacks,” Pakistani defense analyst and security consultant Zaid Hamid said in an interview with Press TV's US Desk on Saturday.

Hamid added that there is evidence confirming Davis has been a US undercover operative in Pakistan.

“With this kind of evidence the issue is not just the assassination of those two boys on the streets of Lahore but it is an indication of a much larger network of CIA espionage and sabotage inside Pakistan,” he said.

Earlier, US President Barack Obama urged Pakistan to free the US official saying he enjoys diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention.

However, under public pressure, Lahore High Court adjourned a decision on whether Davis had diplomatic immunity.

The court gave the foreign ministry more time to answer on whether full diplomatic status was held by Davis, who has been remanded in custody since his arrest following the incident on January 27.

Pakistani police have pressed charges of espionage against Davis, saying he is an employee of the notorious US security firm Xe/Blackwater, working in Pakistan under the cover of the so-called war on terror.

Davis has diplomatic immunity: Obama

Supporters of Pakistani religious party Jamat-e-Islami chant slogans during a rally against Raymond Davis in Lahore on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165425.html

US President Barack Obama has urged Pakistan to free a US consulate employee who has been detained over the killing of two Pakistani citizens in Lahore.

During a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, Obama said that the US official, identified as Raymond Davis, enjoys diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention, a Press TV correspondent reported.

"If our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution," Obama stated. He called on Islamabad to abide by the convention and set Davis free.

Meanwhile, US Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, who arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday for talks about Davis's case, has apologized over the killings.

"US respect Pakistani courts, but Raymond's issue has nothing to do with courts as diplomats enjoy immunity under Vienna convention," Kerry told reporters in eastern Lahore city.

The United States has already stepped up pressure on Pakistan over Davis and has threatened to cut billions of dollars in military and other assistance if Islamabad does not free him.

The warning has placed the government in a dilemma, with crowds of Pakistanis expressing indignation in rallies in Lahore and demanding that Davis be brought to justice.

Davis has said he acted in self-defense in an attempted robbery, but Pakistani officials say US diplomats are not allowed to carry weapons in the country.

Fauzia Wahab, a senior member of the Pakistan People's Party, told Press TV on Monday that the US official had diplomatic immunity and should not have been arrested.

Pakistani Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan has said the US should free Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, who is a Pakistani citizen, in return for the US national's release.

In 2010, Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in prison in the US on charges of opening fire with a rifle on FBI agents and US military personnel in a police station in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where she was being interrogated, in 2008.

Pakistanis demand death for Davis

A Pakistani demonstrator shouts anti-American slogans during a protest to demand the death penalty for a US consulate employee. (file photo)

Source: Press TV

Hundreds of protesters in the Pakistani city of Lahore have taken to the streets, demanding the death penalty for a US consulate employee, Raymond Davis, accused of killing two Pakistanis.

Up to 500 people rallied outside the headquarters of Jamaat-e-Islami party in Lahore on Friday, shouting “Hang Davis,” “US terrorism in Pakistan unacceptable” and “Friends of America are traitors.”

In Karachi, activists from Jamaat-e-Islami and its youth wing Pasban held two rallies, burning the US flag and chanting “Death to Davis, death to America,” AFP reported Friday.

“We are deeply disappointed over threats by the US government,” senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader Liaqat Baloch told the demonstrators.

“The Raymond Davis incident has exposed the true face of America and has exposed Blackwater, which is behind bomb blasts on sacred Muslim places and shrines,” Baloch noted.

Davis, 36, is under investigation for shooting dead two Pakistani men in Lahore last month.

He has admitted he shot the men but says he acted in self-defense because they were trying to rob him.

Pakistan's police say they have proof that it was cold-blooded murder.

Meanwhile, a Pakistani court has extended his detention by two weeks.

The court wants the government to clarify whether Davis has diplomatic status. The United States says as an embassy staffer Davis does have political immunity.

The diplomatic spat over the arrest has threatened to derail relations between the US and Pakistan.

Washington has said it would expel Pakistan's ambassador to the United States if Islamabad does not release Davis.

US warns to cut Pakistan aid over Davis

Source: Press TV

The US threatens to cut aid to Pakistan unless Islamabad drops murder charges against the American consulate employee who has been imprisoned for murdering two Pakistanis.

US lawmakers threatened that they will consider cutting billions of dollars in military and other aid to Pakistan unless Islamabad frees the US diplomat, identified by police officials as Raymond Davis, the Associated Press reported.

US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday and urged him to release the American.

According to American officials, negotiations involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States scheduled to be held at the ministerial level on 24 February may be downgraded to talks among low-ranking officials if Islamabad does not release Davis.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Zardari and Pakistan's army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani about the case.

Islamabad says US diplomats are not allowed to carry weapons in Pakistan.

Reports say that Davis was not a consulate official but an agent for the notorious US security firm, Blackwater.

"We continue to make it clear to the government of Pakistan that our diplomat has diplomatic immunity and in our view was acting in self-defense and should be released," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday.

Davis was arrested in the city of Lahore late last month after he shot dead two locals identified as Mohammad Faheem and Faizan Haider.

Mohammad Faheem's wife, Shumaila, committed suicide on Sunday out of sheer frustration that Davis may escape justice considering the US pressure imposed on Islamabad to release him.

The incident has intensified anti-American sentiment in Pakistan leading to hundreds of Pakistanis, including lawyers, human rights groups and political activists rallying in front of the US consulate in Lahore on Monday and chanting anti-US slogans.

'US embassy official Blackwater agent'

People look at the blood stains in a Lahore street after the American cosular killed two Pakistanis on January 27, 2011

Source: Press TV

Pakistani media say the US embassy official charged with the murder of two Pakistani citizens is an agent for the notorious security firm, Blackwater.

The US official identified by police as Raymond Davis shot dead two men riding on a motorcycle in Lahore on Thursday in what he claimed was self-defense during an attempted robbery.

A third Pakistani was run over and killed in the incident after being hit by a US consulate vehicle rushing to the scene to the American's aid.

The US embassy in Islamabad has confirmed the man involved was a consular official and says it is carrying out an investigation.

Trying to avoid an anti-American reaction, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday that Washington will fully cooperate with Pakistani authorities and will explain about the incident to the Pakistani people.

The issue of American diplomats carrying weapons inside Pakistan was a hot-button subject last year among certain politicians and sections of the media purportedly worried about the country's sovereignty.

Many Pakistanis regard the United States with suspicion or outright enmity because of its occupation of neighboring Afghanistan

US official to face trial in Pakistan

Pakistani policemen gather around the car of US consular worker at the police station in Lahore on January 27, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/162362.html

The American employee of the US consulate in Pakistan who is charged with the murder of two locals in Lahore is expected to appear in court on Friday.

"Once we get the report and other documents, we expect to produce the American before a magistrate for possible remand," AFP quoted police investigation officer Muneer Ahmed as saying.

The US official identified by police as Raymond Davis shot dead two men riding on a motorcycle on Thursday in what he claimed was self-defense during an attempt robbery.

A third Pakistani was run over and killed in the incident after being hit by a US consulate vehicle rushing to the American's aid.

Scores of people took to the streets after the incidents in protest, setting tires on fire at the scene, blocking escape by the Americans.

Lahore police Chief Aslam Tareen said the American was being questioned by the police and may be charged with both murder and illegally carrying a weapon, a Beretta pistol.

The US embassy in Islamabad has confirmed the man involved was a consular official and says it is carrying out an investigation.

Trying to avoid an anti-American reaction, US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Thursday that Washington will fully cooperate with Pakistani authorities and will explain about the incident to the Pakistani people.

The killing comes as anti-American sentiments are running high in the country.