Murder-accused US diplomat may have been an 'undercover spy': Report

Lahore, Feb 01(ANI): The US Consular employee facing double murder charges in Pakistan reportedly had frequent contacts with a faction of a banned militant outfit, possibly to get confidential information while working as an undercover spy, according to a newspaper report.

Credible sources close to the investigators said the undercover US national, codenamed Raymond Davis, and three other US officials had left a cafeteria after holding a 'crucial' meeting with the members of a terrorist outfit when the shooting incident took place near Mozang Crossing on last Thursday, The Nation reported.

"It was unclear why they (US officials) met the members of a terror outfit at a restaurant located in the Walled City, where a suicide bomber killed over a dozen people and injured many others few days before their visit," a source was quoted, as saying.

According to initial investigations, the US nationals left the restaurant and were on their way to hold another confidential meeting at an undisclosed location, while the motorcyclists were chasing them, the report said.

The authorities are also investigating whether the US officials were playing any double game with the militants to get confidential information about their operations or their network or they were just funding the outfit for 'outsourcing,' the report added.

The US Consulate officials are still unwilling to share information about these US nationals with the police investigators, sources said, adding, the US officials have also failed to hand over the other men and the vehicle wanted in a murder case to the police.

Sources also said that the accused was trying to adopt the 'right to silence' strategy in order to avoid cross-questioning during interrogation, according to the report.

"If an accused adopts right to silence policy, the investigators will be left with no other option but to presume that he is guilty," a senior police officer said, adding, "It (strategy) will go against him."

According to the sources, Davis was an Islamabad-based US national who was working in Pakistan as an undercover US spy, the report said.

Sources further informed that dozens of undercover contractors from US-based security companies that provide 'loss and risk management professionals' are operating covertly in different posh areas of the city, where they are residing in rented bungalows and villas, it added. (ANI)