The shooting to death of two Pakistani youths, namely Faizan Haider and Muhammad Faheem, by a U.S. Consulate official, Raymond Allen Davis, and the death of a third Pakistani, namely Obaid-ur-Rahman, by a vehicle operated by the U.S. Consulate, in Lahore on 27 January 2011 has, once again, raised concerns relating to the conduct of American officials working for the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Pakistan.
Raymond Davis was arrested by the Punjab Police on the same day and, on 28 January 2011, was presented before a magistrate in Lahore, who remanded him into police custody for six days. On 29 January 2011, three days after the incident, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, without even naming Raymond Davis, called for his release whilst claiming that he was a diplomat and was being detained illegally in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961 (the “Vienna Diplomatic Convention”). On 1 February 2011, the Lahore High Court, in response to a public interest petition, restrained Pakistani authorities from handing Raymond Davis over to the U.S. authorities and has ordered his name to be placed on the Exit Control List to prevent him from leaving Pakistan.
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