Former US security contractor Raymond Davis has released a book that has sparked a furious reaction in Pakistan, six years after sparking a diplomatic crisis in the country.
The book, entitled "The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis", released last week in the US, details his experiences in Pakistan.
Raymond Davis was arrested in Pakistan on Jan. 27, 2011 for killing two men in the eastern city of Lahore. He claimed that he acted in self-defense.
He was working as a contractor with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) when he killed the men on a busy street in the city.
Friends and family of the victims hold a demonstration at the crime scene on January 28, 2011 in Lahore, Pakistan. /VCG Photo
A third man died after a car coming to Davis' rescue hit him while driving on the wrong side.
He was released on March 16, 2011 after the families of the two victims were paid 2.4 million US dollars.
Judges acquitted him on all charges and he immediately flew back to the US.
In the memoir, Davis claims Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, coordinated his exit.
Pakistan's intelligence officials, however, have reacted angrily to his claims.
“(Davis’) release was an arrangement between two states and not two individuals. It was based on goodwill between two agencies or two states and it helped the CIA get their man out through legal means, but in a confidential arrangement,” Pakistan's English daily, The Nation said, quoting an unnamed Pakistani intelligence official.
His arrest and dramatic acquittal made headlines, not only in Pakistan but elsewhere too.
Residents of Abottabad, Pakistan gathered near a compound where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011. /VCG Photo
Davis was taken from the court directly to the airport where a plane was ready to take him out of the country, he writes.
Cameron Munter, then US ambassador to Pakistan, was on the plane bound for Kabul. Davis writes, “With the ambassador on board the aircraft, the Pakistanis would not dare mess around by denying it clearance to take off."
The diplomatic crisis
Following the Raymond Davis episode, relations between Pakistan and the US plummeted to new lows with two further incidents in the same year.
Pakistani civil society members beat a burning symbolic effigy of NATO during an anti-NATO protest in Lahore on December 15, 2011. /VCG Photo
Osama bin Laden was killed in a covert cross-border Navy SEAL raid on May 2, 2011, in the Pakistani garrison town of Abottabad. The incident outraged Islamabad.
On November 26, a NATO airstrike on a Pakistani check post near the Afghan border killed 24 military personnel.
In response, Pakistan closed NATO's vital supply routes into Afghanistan.
The routes were reopened in July 2012 after then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized for the attack.
Angry reactions
Not much is known about Raymond Davis or his work in Pakistan.
But his dramatic acquittal after killing two Pakistani citizens stirred controversy that brought widespread attention to the case.
Pakistan's English daily 'Dawn' on Monday said in an editorial that Davis' book has "reopened an ugly chapter" in Pakistan's recent history.
Opposition leader and head of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan addresses his supporters during an anti-government rally in Quetta, Pakistan on May 19, 2017. /VCG Photo
"Mr. Davis has made a number of claims. The claims are difficult to verify and often appear to be outside the realm of knowledge a self-proclaimed security contractor could have about high-level Pakistan-US discussions," the paper wrote.
Pakistani cricketer-turned-opposition leader and head of the Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party Imran Khan tweeted a photo of the book title suggesting every Pakistani should read the book to understand "why we are treated with so little respect internationally."
Six years ago, the Raymond Davis case put Pakistan under pressure at home and "The Contractor" has now reopened some old wounds.
