A day after the American media began authoritatively referring to Raymond Davis — the U.S. embassy staffer arrested for gunning down two “armed” Pakistanis in “self-defence” in Lahore last month — as an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a section of the press in Pakistan reported he had close links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
While Mr. Davis' cover got blown soon after the shooting incident on January 27 with the U.S. embassy changing its position on his job profile more than once, American media reports confirming him as a CIA operative have given credence to speculations in Pakistan that he was a spy. The new narrative is he was recruiting young people from Punjab for the Taliban as part of a plan to lend credibility to U.S. concern about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
With the Pakistan government remaining tight-lipped about the details of the case on the premise that the matter is sub-judice, the rumours have thickened as they spread and now family members of Mr. Davis' victims are complaining that they were being pressurised from both ends of the political spectrum. According to them, there is immense pressure from certain quarters of the political leadership to withdraw the case against Mr. Davis while others are telling them not to accept any compensation from the U.S.
