American contractor Raymond Davis has mentioned his arrest in Pakistan, his investigation in various agencies, the details of the case and finally his release in a very interesting way in the thrilling autobiography "The Contractor" published in 2017.
According to him, the most dramatic day was the last day of the trial when Raymond Davis was to be charged with murder in a special sessions court set up at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore. Davis writes that he did not sleep that night.
The court was overcrowded that day, and Davis was locked in a steel cage and brought before a judge. "I didn't know if it was meant to protect me from people or to keep people safe from me, " he said.
The behavior of the people there made them feel as if they were all waiting for the judge to rule on their guilt so that "they would then drag me and hang me from a nearby tree. "
According to the book, Michael Milne and General Kayani had a secret meeting in Oman in which the release of Raymond Davis was considered.
Surprisingly, Davis found in court that prosecutor Asad Manzoor Butt, who had earlier interrogated him severely, was absent that day, and claimed that Davis had killed Faizan Haider (one of the two men). (Shot by Raymond Davis) for no apparent reason.
According to the book, prosecutor Asad Manzoor Butt later said that when he arrived at the court that morning, he was caught and detained for several hours and kept away from the proceedings as well as his clients.
According to The Contractor, the matter became so important that on February 23, 2011 a top secret meeting was held in Oman between Pakistani and US Army Chiefs General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Admiral Mike Mullen which was largely considered. The only thing that happened was how to find a way out of the Pakistani judicial system so that Davis could be released.
When the court proceedings began on the afternoon of March 16, 2011, the judge expelled all unrelated people, including journalists. But one person who was present in the courtroom during the operation was General Shuja Pasha, then head of Pakistan's ISI.
At the time, Davis did not know who the man was, but there were significant activities going on behind the scenes. At the heart of these activities was General Pasha, who on the one hand was meeting with former US CIA chief Leon Panetta and on the other was in touch with US Ambassador to Islamabad Cameron Munter.
During the court proceedings, General was constantly sending news of the proceedings to Cameron Munter from time to time by texting on his mobile phone.
Since the court proceedings were taking place in Urdu, Davis did not know anything special, but in the meantime, the reaction of the people present there showed that something big had happened. Paul, an American colleague from Davis, approached the lawyers and said that the judge had "turned the court into a sharia court."
"What are you talking about?" Davis asked. "I don't understand. "
General Pasha and Cameron Munter were among the masterminds behind the decision to dismiss the case on Sharia grounds. The Pakistani military was also aware of this, while President Zardari and Nawaz Sharif were also told what was being cooked.
Davis writes that General Pasha had to retire just two days later, on March 18, so he was desperately trying to resolve the matter, and when the matter was settled, his tenure was extended by one year and he retired in March 2012 instead of March 2011.
According to The Contractor, it was General Pasha who played a key role in separating hardline prosecutor Asad Manzoor Butt from the case. Assad was fighting the case for free.
Raymond Davis writes that when it was decided to settle the matter under Diyat, one of the obstacles was that the relatives of the victims refused to accept it, so on March 14, ISI personnel came into action and all 18 loved ones were locked up in Kot Lakhpat Jail, their homes were locked and their mobile phones were confiscated.
The book claims that there were two ways for these relatives in prison, either they accept diyya of 130, 000 dollars or else...
The book claims that during the court proceedings, the family members were placed at a gunpoint outside the court and were told not to open their mouths in front of the media.
One by one, the family members would quietly appear before the judge, show their ID cards and receive a receipt for the money and come out.
It is also very interesting who gave this money. The then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had categorically denied that the diyya was paid for by the United States. However, later news came that the money was given by ISI and later the bill was presented to the United States.
As soon as the operation was completed, Raymond Davis was taken out of a back door and taken straight to Lahore airport where a Cessna plane was waiting for him on the runway.
This strange chapter of Pakistan's judicial, diplomatic and political history came to an end.
