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The Raymond Davis Case The Asian country Pakistan has always been a center of controversies with regard to terrorist issues and is considered to be a country which is home to many terrorist organizations. The case of Raymond Davis has again led to sparks with Pakistan being on the center of this issue and it has turned into an international problem due to the tensions created between the United States and Pakistan with regard to this issue. Raymond Davis is an American national who was working in Pakistan in the embassy of the United States.
An incident towards the beginning of January became a major issue as Raymond Davis was arrested by the police in Pakistan with the charges of opening fire and killing two men in broad daylight in the city of Lahore where he used to reside in Pakistan (Mazzetti 2011, Mazzetti et al 2011). Raymond Davis is a national of the United States and the American government came to his rescue and argued upon the fact that Raymond Davis had actually fired on the two men in an act of defending himself and he had not murdered them out of any other motive.
On the other hand, the Pakistani authorities argued that Raymond Davis had fired several shots on the two men and he had fired them from the back which proved to deny the claims of the American government that he had taken this step in self defense. Another issue erupted when the account of Raymond Davis was presented and it was explained that he claimed in his statement to have shot the two men and then he came out of his care to take pictures and at the same time call for help from the embassy (Mazzetti et al 2011).
The United States started mounting pressure on Pakistan for the release of their national and they initially presented the fact that he had a legal right to being released as he was granted the status of a diplomat on his passport. They presented the fact that he worked in the embassy as a normal employee and did the paper work (Mazzetti et al 2011). The issue escalated further when it was leaked that Raymond Davis was actually a member of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and was working in Pakistan as an undercover spy to track information on the terrorist organizations operating in the country.
It was identified that his particular aim was to work towards finding about the operations of mainly the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is an anti-Indian terrorist group operating in Pakistan but it carries the risk of posing global threats to the west as well (Mazzetti 2011,Crilly, 2011). President Obama appealed to the authorities of Pakistan for the release of Raymond Davis. The government of Pakistan which is pro-American was placed in a difficult situation as the situation sparked protests throughout the country with the people of Pakistan demanding strong action against Raymond Davis (Mazzetti et al 2011).
The matter has been placed in the Lahore High Court but the integrity of the case in the Lahore High Court is questionable. This is owing to the fact that this court actually removed all the criminal charges against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed who is a leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was arrested several times but the court cleared his case in the year of 2009. The justice for Raymond Davis again lies in the same court and his case is still under process (Mazzetti 2011). Works Cited Crilly, Rob. “Raymond Davis 'was acting head of CIA in Pakistan'”.
The Telegraph. 22 Feb. 2011. Web 14 March 2011. Mazzetti, M., Parker, A., Perlez, J. and Schmitt, E. “American Held in Pakistan Worked With C.I.A.” The New York Times. 21 Feb. 2011. Web 14 March 2011. Mazzetti, M.“A Shooting in Pakistan Reveals Fraying Alliance.” The New York Times.12 March 2011. Web 14 March 2011.
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