29/01/2011:
The United States on Saturday claimed that the accused was a diplomat and demanded his immediate release. This stance of the US was a clear U-turn on the status of the American charged with murder of two motorcyclists in Lahore. It is claimed by the US Embassy Officials that Raymond Davis has a US diplomatic passport and Pakistani visa valid until June 2012. The US embassy also condemned the detention of the accused in police custody in the following words, “Furthermore, the diplomat was formally arrested and remanded into custody, which is a violation of international norms and the Vienna Convention, to which Pakistan is a signatory,”
The latest American statement was undoubtedly differ from the press released by the embassy on Friday describing the accused Raymond Davis as “a staff member of the US Consulate General in Lahore”, which though ambiguous, but was clearly short of declaring him as a diplomat.
The Foreign Office of Pakistan also have also hardened its stance on the matter. The Foreign Officer Spokesman Abdul Basit persuaded that the legal process may be respected. “This matter is sub judice and the legal process should be respected,” he emphasised in a message evidently directed at the US.
30.01.2011
About 40,000 people rallied at Lahore. The protesters called the brothers of two Pakistani men shot dead by a US national in Lahore on Thursday to the stage and pledged their support for the victims’ families in pursuing a murder case. The US man, named as Raymond Davis, is being held at a police station on double murder charges over the shooting of the two motorcyclists.
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