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Davis flies into fury on prayer call
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 09:09
By: Jam Sajjad Hussain
LAHORE – The inmates facing murder charges invariably display quite caution. American killer Raymond Davis, however, is a different species. Undeterred by the implications of his case, he lives in the jail the way he wants to.
Davis doesn’t like to be disturbed in any manner whatsoever. Even Azaan, the prayer call, comes as a source of disturbance for him. And distressing is the disclosure that the loudspeakers in the jail were muted when Davis complained about the prayer call Monday morning.
Davis lodged a protest with the jail authorities on “being disturbed by the morning prayer call”.
“He started shouting in a quite savage manner in the wee hours when the Azaan was in progress and the prisoners were waking up for the prayers,” said a prisoner requesting not to be named.
The inmate said that Davis started shouting, “Shut the louder or I will raise the matter with the (US) Consulate.”
“Surprisingly, jail officials shut the loudspeaker. It prompted the other prisoners to protest. In return, the officials switched the speaker back on,” said the inmate.
An official of the Kot Lakhpat Jail, pseudonym Bholi Shah, said Davis had started huffing and puffing on hearing the Friday prayer call on his first day in jail.
“Seeing four prisoners offering Asr prayers in the corridor of their barrack, Davis started grumbling in a derogatory way,” said Shah.
Pakistan hints at prisoner swap for US Official
Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 February 2011 03:50 Wednesday, 16 February 2011 02:51
Pakistan's law minister has hinted that an American embassy official arrested for killing two people could be swapped for neuroscientist imprisoned for trying to kill U.S. interrogators, according to a report.
Asked how to resolve the case of Raymond Davis — who has been held for two weeks in Pakistan after admitting killing men he says were trying to rob him — law minister Babar Awan told reporters that the U.S. had "a repatriation call and we have a call," the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
The Telegraph said Awan was referring to Aafia Siddiqui, 38, who is serving an 86-year sentence in the U.S. However, he didn't explicitly call for a prisoner exchange.
Afghan police captured her in Afghanistan in 2008 and prosecutors told her trial that the day after her arrest, she grabbed an M4 rifle and started shooting at U.S. interrogators, yelling "death to America."
Siddiqui, who holds a doctorate from Brandeis University in Massachusetts, did not hit anyone, but was shot and wounded, according to prosecutors.
'Daughter of the nation'
Her case has become a major issue in Pakistan, where many believe she is innocent. In September 2010, Pakistan's prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani described her as the "daughter of the nation" and pledged to campaign for her release.
The U.S. says Davis shot two robbers in self-defense and that his detention is illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.
That position appeared to win support with a Pakistan government official saying most legal experts in the country's law and foreign offices believed he did have diplomatic immunity from prosecution.
The official said the government would provide a court with documents that reflect that majority consensus later this week. The Pakistani official requested anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.
The U.S. Embassy said it was looking into the matter Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry was due to arrive in Pakistan Tuesday night to meet with senior Pakistani government officials, NBC News reported.
On Tuesday, an influential Pakistani Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, warned it would hold protests if Davis was released.
The party accused the U.S. of exerting "unprincipled and unlawful" pressure on Pakistan.
"Why is America hell bent on trampling on Pakistani law and its judicial system? We will forcefully protest if he is released without a court order," Jamaat-e-Islami deputy chief Liaquat Baluch told Reuters.
Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties don't win many votes in elections, but the government can't afford to ignore them.
Some members of the Pakistani media, which has in the past accused U.S. aid workers of being spies, have also called for Davis to be put on trial in Pakistan.
Supporters of the men Davis shot dead in the city of Lahore on January 27 have already held protests and burned U.S. flags. Lahore's police chief called the killings "clear-cut murder".
In addition to the two men shot and killed by Davis, a third man was killed when a vehicle from the U.S. consulate, apparently en route to rescue Davis, struck and killed a passer-by.
Detained US official 'in telephone contact with Islamic terror group'
Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 00:20 Monday, 14 February 2011 23:18
By Rob Crilly
Sources close to the investigation said Raymond Davis, 36, had made a series of telephone calls to South Waziristan, a tribal area along the border with Afghanistan synonymous with militant activity.
The mystery surrounding Davis has deepened since he was arrested in Lahore two weeks ago. He has told police officers he shot dead two men in self defence.
The US insists he is a diplomat based at the embassy in Islamabad and should be granted immunity.
However, security sources have leaked a series of details suggesting that he may have had a clandestine role.
"His phone records clearly show he was in contact with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, for what reason we can only speculate," said a police officer, referring to a terrorist group with close links to the Pakistani Taliban.
Hamid Gul, a former head of Pakistan's spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, said the phone calls suggested he was a secret agent.
"This is a classic intelligence technique – to get inside the head of the enemy," he said.
Davis, who is due to appear in court on Friday, is a former special forces soldier who left the US army in 2003 after 10 years of service, according to Pentagon records.
Mobile phone footage obtained by the Dunya TV channel shows him pleading for the return of his passport shortly after his arrest.
"I need to tell the embassy where I am at," he said, during a confused interrogation as police officers interrupt and laugh in the background.
He went on to tell them that he was working at the US consulate in Lahore "I just work as a consultant there, with the [Regional Affairs Office]," he said.
His arrest is deeply embarrassing to the governments of both Pakistan and the US, which has suspended some high-level talks in order to increase pressure on Islamabad.
Trilateral talks with US postponed amid Davis row
Last Updated on Saturday, 12 February 2011 23:51 Saturday, 12 February 2011 23:49
WASHINGTON: A scheduled high-level meeting among US, Afghan and Pakistani officials this month has been postponed, the State Department said on Saturday amid a deepening diplomatic rift over a US man locked in a Pakistani jail accused of murder.
State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the decision to scrap the February 23-24 meeting had been taken “in light of political changes in Pakistan and after discussions with Afghan and Pakistani officials in Washington.”
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday dropped Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a cabinet shake-up.
“We remain committed to a robust engagement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States as we share many issues of mutual concern and benefit from being at the same table,” Crowley said in a statement, adding that the United States hoped to reschedule the meeting “at the earliest opportunity.”
Tensions between Islamabad and Washington have been rising over the case of Raymond Davis, a US consular employee who shot dead two Pakistani men last month in what he said was an attempted robbery.
The Obama administration insists diplomatic immunity should apply to Davis, and the case has become a focus for anti-US sentiment in Pakistan, which the United States counts as an important, if unreliable, ally in its war against militants that launch attacks against its soldiers in Afghanistan.
The trilateral meetings have been held periodically in a bid to foster stability in Afghanistan, where around 100,000 US troops are fighting tenacious Taliban militants, and in Pakistan, where a fragile government battles an insurgency of its own.
The controversy over Davis, who shot the two men on January 27, is the latest issue pitting Pakistani officials against their US counterparts even as they struggle to project an image of cooperation on security.
On Friday, a Pakistani court jailed Davis for 14 more days, threatening to prolong a dispute that has put many high-level dealings on hold, including official visits to Pakistan, and could threaten US assistance to the country, one of the largest non-Nato recipients of American military aid.
US officials have denied slowing or halting meetings with their Pakistani counterparts, although they have also emphasized that resolving the Davis case is important for the relationship to move forward.
US suspends high level talks with Pakistan until Davis's release
Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 February 2011 11:35 Tuesday, 08 February 2011 10:16
White house has also "summoned" Pakistan's Ambassador to United States, Mr.Haqqani, twice to ensure that Pakistan admits and enforces the diplomatic immunity for American Terrorist Raymond Davis.
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