US diplomat killed ‘intelligence operatives’ in Lahore shootout

Two Pakistani nationals killed by an American official in Lahore recently, were in fact undercover intelligence operatives who were following Raymond Davis due to his suspicious activities.

Thus the civilian government in Islamabad is under tremendous pressure from the country’s military and intelligence establishment not to grant the killer diplomatic immunity, as being sought by the US under the Geneva Convention.

According to the Pakistani media reports here on Monday, the Pakistan government’s reluctance is due to this fact. “Yes, those killed at the hands of Raymond Davis belonged to the security establishment….they found the activities of the American official detrimental to our national security and were following him,” English newspaper Express Tribune has quoted an unnamed security official as saying.

The security official further confirmed that the president, the prime minister and the chief of army staff had discussed the issue in a meeting last week. The three thought it was advisable to resist the US pressure on the Raymond Davis issue and believed the detained American national should not be released at this stage, he said.

He said the government’s tough stance on the controversy was also its reaction to the attempts by certain elements in Washington to implicate the country’s top spy agency, the ISI, in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. “The government is angry about that.”